Aflatoxins in spices marketed in Portugal

Abstract

Seventy-nine prepackaged samples of 12 different types of spice powders (five cardamom, five cayenne pepper, eight chilli, five cloves, seven cumin, five curry) powder, five ginger, five mustard, 10 nutmeg, 12 paprika, five saffron and seven white pepper) were selected from supermarkets and ethnic shops in Lisbon (Portugal) for estimation of aflatoxins by immunoaffinity column clean-up followed by HPLC. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) was detected in 34 samples of prepackaged spices (43.0%). All of the cayenne pepper samples were contaminated with levels ranging from 2 to 32 microg AFB1/kg. Three nutmeg samples contained levels ranging from 1 to 5 microg/kg, three samples had levels ranging from 6 to 20 microg/kg, and there were two with 54 microg/kg and 58 microg/ kg. Paprika contained levels of aflatoxin B1 ranging from 1 to 20 microg/kg. Chilli, cumin, curry powder, saffron and white pepper samples had levels ranging from 1 to 5 microg/kg. Aflotoxins were not detected in cardamon, cloves, ginger and mustard. None of the samples analysed contained aflatoxins B2, G1 and G2.

Aflatoxins in spices, aromatic herbs, herb-teas and medicinal plants marketed in Italy

“…% AFB 1 AFB 2 AFG 1 AFG 2 often wet with water prior to marketing and this creates ideal conditions for the growth of moulds (Reddy et al, 2001). Our considerations seem to be conWrmed by previous works from diVerent countries like Portugal (Martins et al, 2001), Japan (Tabata, Ibe, Ozawa, Kamimura, & Yasuda, 1998), Turkey (Gurbuz, Nizamlioglu, Nizamlioglu, Dinc, & Dogruer, 2000), Africa (Fufa & Urga, 1996) and more (Reddy et al, 2001).…”

“…Moulds are widely distributed as environmental contaminants (Martins, Tins, & Bernardo, 2001), in fact, under favourable conditions of temperature and humidity, moulds grow on many commodities including cereals, oil seeds, nuts, herb-teas and spices (Brera, Miraglia, & Colatosti, 1998).…”

Co-occurrence of aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and zearalenone in Capsicum powder samples available on the Spanish market

“…with mycotoxins has been described in several surveys of retail markets in Australia (Klieber, 2001), Belgium (Goryacheva et al, 2006), Canada (Scott & Kennedy, 1973), China (Hu, Zhang, & He, 2006), Egypt (El-Kady, El-Maraghy, & Mostafa, 1995), Hungary (Fazekas, Tar, & Kovács, 2005;Sawinsky, Halász, & Hornok, 1988), India (Reddy, Mayi, Reddy, Thirumala-Devi, & Reddy, 2001;Scott & Kennedy, 1973;Thirumala-Devi et al, 2000), Japan (Tabata et al, 1993), Morocco (Zinedine et al, 2006), Pakistan (Shamsuddin, Khan, Khan, Ahmad, & Ahmed, 1995), Portugal (Martins, Martins, & Bernardo, 2001), Russia (Goryacheva et al, 2006), Singapore (Scott et al, 1973), the Netherlands (Goryacheva et al, 2006), Turkey (Aydin, Erkan, Baskaya, & Giftcioglu, 2007;Bircan, 2005;Colak, Bingol, Hampikyan, & Nazli, 2006;Erdogan, 2004) and the United Kingdom (Garner, Whattam, Taylor, & Stow, 1993;Macdonald & Castle, 1995;Patel, Hazel, Winterton, & Mortby, 1996).…”

Aflatoxin concentrations in chilies vary depending on variety

“…Chilies are susceptible to AF contamination (Macdonald and Castle 1995;Martins et al 2001;Reddy et al 2001;O'Riordan and Wilkinson 2008) and as discussed in (Paterson 2007) and (Iqbal et al 2010a, b, c, d). Briefly, the tolerance limit of AFB 1 in chilies is 5 lg/kg and for total AF is 10 lg/kg (Commission Regulation 2010).…”