Objectives: Aflatoxins are a category of poisonous compounds found in most plants, milk and dairy products. The present research was carried out to detect the presence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in samples of milk collected from Hamadan province, Iran.
Methods: Twenty five samples of ultra-high temperature (UHT) and 63 samples of pasteurized milk were collected and the amount of AFM1 was measured by an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay method. In addition, the estimated daily intake (EDI) and hazard index (HI) of AFM1 was determined by the following equations:(EDI= mean concentration of AFM1 × daily consumption of milk/body weight; HI= EDI/Tolerance Daily Intake).
Results: AFM1 was detected in 21 (84%) UHT milk samples and in 55 (87.30%) pasteurized milk samples. Seven (28%) samples of UHT and 21 (33.33%) pasteurized milk samples had higher AFM1 content than the limit allowed in the European Union and Iranian National Standard Limits (0.05 μg/kg). None of the samples exceeded the US Food and Drug Administration limit (0.5 μg/kg) for AFM1. EDI and HI for AM1 through milk were 0.107 ng/kg body weight/day, and 0.535, respectively.
Conclusion: A significant percentage of milk produced by different factories in Iran (84% of UHT and 87.3% of pasteurized milk) was contaminated with AFM1. Therefore, more control and monitoring of livestock feeding in dairy companies may help reduce milk contamination with AFM1. As the HI value was lower than 1, it can be assumed that there was no risk of developing liver cancer due to milk consumption.
Keywords: Iran; aflatoxin M1; milk; risk assessment.