Quantitation of aflatoxins in pistachios and groundnuts using HPLC-FLD method

- We determined presence and levels of AFs in pistachios and groundnuts from Turkey.
- AFs analyses were performed with HPLC-FLD after post-column derivatisation.
- The method performance parameters were within acceptable criteria.
- AFs were detected in 14.6% of pistachios and 19.2% of groundnuts analysed.

In this study, a sensitive high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) method after post-column derivatisation was applied for the presence of aflatoxins (AFs) in 151 pistachios and 151 groundnuts from Turkey. Samples were collected between January 2010 and December 2012 in two provinces of Turkey and checked for AFs levels. Quantification limits were 0.11, 0.11, 0.12 and 0.14 μg kg−1 for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2), respectively. AFs were present in 14.6% of pistachios (22/151) and 19.2% of groundnuts (29/151) at total AFs levels ranging from 0.26 to 385 μg kg−1 and from 0.16 to 60.9 μg kg−1, respectively. Seven pistachio samples were above the European maximum tolerable limit (MTL) of 8 μg kg−1 for AFB1, while total AFs concentration exceeded the MTL of 10 μg kg−1 in eight pistachio samples. For groundnuts, eight and six samples exceeded MTL of 2 and 4 μg kg−1 for AFB1 and total AFs, respectively.