Incidence and level of aflatoxin contamination in chilli commercialised in Turkey

During the years 2011-2012, a total of 182 chilli samples were collected from two provinces of Turkey and checked for aflatoxins (AFs). The samples were analysed using immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) after post-column derivatisation. Quantification limits were 0.111, 0.110, 0.115 and 0.140 μg kg−1 for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2), respectively. Aflatoxins were found in 150 out of 182 analysed samples: one hundred and fifty samples with AFB1, eighty-four samples with AFB2 and thirty-two samples with AFG1. No AFG2 were detected in chilli samples above the quantification limit of 0.14 μg kg−1. The ranges for positive samples were 0.24-165 μg AFB1 kg−1, 0.15-11.3 μg AFB2 kg−1 and 0.15-3.88 μg AFG1 kg−1. Fifty and thirty-five samples of chilli exceeded the legal limits of 5 and 10 μg kg−1 established by European Commission for AFB1 and total AFs (the sum of AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2), respectively.