Abstract:
Peanut is one of the oil seeds available in Sri Lanka. Peanuts and peanut products
are considered as popular food items among all age groups of population, especially
in urban areas. People prefer to buy peanut based food items as snacks. Peanut
is shown to be a good substrate for the growth of Aspergiillus sp. and for the
production of aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are potent teratogenic, mutagenic, and
carcinogenic mycotoxin proven to be contained in food and feed. Present work
was carried out as a preliminary study to determine the level of aflatoxin
contamination in commercially available roasted and fried peanut samples collected
from venders in Colombo city, Sri Lanka. Samples were tested for aflatoxins by
the CB method of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists. Degree of
aflatoxin contamination was determined by densitometric evaluation. For the
method validation of aflatoxin analysis, two extraction and cleanup procedures
were performed. Chloroform/water extraction and Sep Pac cartridge clean
up procedure were selected as the most reliable methods. Results of the study
showed that 6.6 % of the tested peanut samples were moderately contaminated
(12.5 ppb) and the remaining was fallen into the category of uncontaminated
according to the FAO and WHO standards. Overall result of the study showed
that the samples were not significantly contaminated and unnecessary doubt
on aflatoxin contamination is not needed. However, effective constant monitoring,
surveillance and control programs on aflatoxins contamination are important to
protect consumers from aflatoxin toxicities. Therefore, screening programs which
prevents unsuitable products entering to the market are recommended to evaluate
the contamination.
