Occurrence of Aflatoxin M1 in flavored UHT Milk

In this study a total of 90 flavored Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk samples (cacao, strawberry and banana flavors, 30 samples for each) were analyzed in order to determine the occurrence and the level of Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) contamination by using Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA) method. The results showed that none of the samples exceeded the maximum limit of AFM1 prescribed by Turkish Food Codex (TFC) and European Union Codex (50 ppt; 50ng/l). However, 75.6% of the samples (68 samples) examined were determined to be contaminated with AFM1 at various levels ranging between 0.39 and 26.6 ng/l. The results showed that, although the detected AFM1 levels were lower than the accepted limits, AFM1 contamination of flavored UHT milk, especially preferred and consumed by children with high susceptibility due to their slower biotransformation capacity for carcinogens, could be a public health concern.