DETERMINATION OF AFLATOXIN CONTAMINATION IN OLIVES BY IMMUNOAFFINITY COLUMN USING HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT Eighty‐two whole black olive samples gathered from six different olive oil processing facilities were surveyed to determine levels of aflatoxins using immunoaffinity column extraction and reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography. Two different analytical procedures adopted for the analysis of aflatoxins were investigated for their suitability by spiking the blank olive samples with five different known levels of aflatoxins to determine which one had higher recovery rates. Although some of the olive samples had been exposed to adverse conditions, such as rain and high temperatures, none were found to contain aflatoxins at the determined detection limit. Although the samples were kept in high relative humidity (75%) and high temperature (30C) for 3 months and were tested at 1‐month intervals, no aflatoxins were detected. In addition, the olives were inoculated on a potato dextrose agar medium and incubated for 7 days at 25C to characterize the microflora. Because there is no evidence of aflatoxins in fresh whole olives, the next step of processing the contaminated olives into olive oils and testing them for the aflatoxins was not pursued.