Assessment of aflatoxin M1 levels in milk in Ankara, Turkey

Important role of milk in human, especially in infant nutrition is well known. On the other hand, contamination of milk with aflatoxins is considered as a potential risk for human health. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of aflatoxin M1 in commonly consumed milk samples in Ankara, capital city of Turkey. Aflatoxin M1 levels were investigated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector following sample clean-up using immunoaffinity columns. The mean recovery of the method was 117.9%. Standard curves were linear in the range of 10–200 ng/l with correlation coefficient of 0.9998. The limit of detection was found to be 10 ng/l. In this study, 27 milk samples were analysed. 24 of them were in categories of ultra high temperature treated, and 3 of them were daily-pasteurised milk. Aflatoxin M1 was detected in 59.3% of all samples. However, only one sample among these was contaminated at a level above the maximum permissible limit (50 ng/l) accepted by European Union and Turkey for aflatoxin M1.