title: Occurrence of aflatoxin M1 in randomly selected North African milk and cheese samples.
abstract: Forty-nine samples of raw cow's milk and 20 samples of fresh white soft cheese were collected directly from 20 local dairy factories in the north-west of Libya and analysed for the presence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1). The samples were analysed using a high-performance liquid chromatography technique for toxin detection and quantification. Thirty-five of the 49 milk samples (71.4%) showed AFM1 levels between 0.03 and 3.13 ng ml(-1) milk. Multiple analyses of five milk samples free of AFM1 artificially contaminated with concentrations of AFM1 at 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 1.0 and 3.0 ng ml(-1) showed average recoveries of 66.85, 72.41, 83.29, 97.94 and 98.25%, with coefficients of variations of 3.77, 4.11, 1.57, 1.29 and 0.54%, respectively. Fifteen of 20 white soft cheese samples (75.0%) showed the presence of AFM1 in concentrations between 0. 11 and 0.52 ng g(-1) of cheese. Multiple assays of five cheese samples free of AFM1 spiked with different concentration of AFM1 (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 3.0 ng g(-1)) showed average recoveries of 63.23, 78.14,83.29 and 88.68%, with coefficients of variation of 1.53, 9.90, 4.87 and 3.79%, respectively. The concentrations of AFM1 were lower in the cheese products than in the raw milk samples.
authors.affiliation: Food Research Laboratory, School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, G4 OBA, UK.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Elgerbi
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Aidoo
authors.forename: A A G
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Candlish
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Tester
mesh_terms: D016607:Aflatoxin M1 / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000032:analysis; D002611:Cheese / Q000032:analysis*; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity / Q000379:methods; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008002:Libya; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002273:Carcinogens; D016607:Aflatoxin M1