There is a worldwide concern about food loss due to reduced shelf life among food science researchers. Hence, it seems that any techniques contributing to improved food packaging are most welcome in the food sector. It has been demonstrated that the administration of nanotechnology-based techniques such as metal-based nanoparticles can fade away the unresolved obstacles in shortened shelf life and environmental concerns. Along with substantial signs of progress in nanoscience, there is a great interest in the usage of green synthesis-based methods for gold nanoparticles as the most advantageous metals, when compared to conventional chemistry-based methods. Interestingly, those aforementioned methods have significant potential to simplify targeted administration of gold nanoparticles due to a large surface-volume ratio, and diminished biohazards, aimed at increasing stability, and induction of anti-microbial or antioxidant properties. However, it is necessary to consider the hazards of gold nanoparticles including migration for food packaging purposes.

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a carcinogenic mycotoxin mostly found in dairy products. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-aflatoxin effect of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with two different concentrations (10 8 and 10 10 cfu/mL), alone or mixed, in contaminated skim milk with three concentrations of AFM1 (0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 μg/mL) and incubated at 4, 25 and 37°C for different times (30, 60, 120 min and 24 h). We found that the storage time is a key factor that significantly affects AFM1 removal. Also, removal of AFM1 was dependent on other factors such as micro-organisms' concentration, incubation temperature and toxin concentration. The effective strategy for the highest removal of AFM1 (90%) in contaminated milk spiked with 0.5 μg/mL, which was treated with mixed strains at concentration10 10 cfu/mL and incubated at 37°C after 24 h. The presented methodology can be considered as a potential method for reducing the aflatoxin content of polluted dairy products.