SUMMARYAflatoxins are produced by moulds that are especially found in areas with hot, humid climates. They are most likely to contaminate tree nuts, ground nuts, figs and other dried fruits, spices, crude vegetable oils, cocoa beans and maize. Because aflatoxins are considered to be genotoxic and carcinogenic, it is not possible to identify an intake without risk, and the European Union (EU) introduced regulations for these toxins in 1998, at levels considered to be as low as reasonably achievable. Recent discussions in Codex Alimentarius have proposed setting worldwide a maximum level for total aflatoxins in unprocessed almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, higher than that currently in force in the EU. As a result, the Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food chain (CONTAM) was asked to advise on the potential increase in risks to consumer health associated with a proposed change of the currently existing EU maximum level of 4 µg/kg for total aflatoxins (sum of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2) in almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios to 8 or 10 µg/kg, taking into account consumption patterns of these nuts in the EU, and intake of aflatoxins from other foods.About 40,000 analytical results on occurrence of aflatoxins in various food commodities were considered by the CONTAM Panel. Aflatoxins were not detected in about 75% of the samples tested, i.e. if present they were below the limit of detection of the methods used, which varied for different sets of data. For those samples where aflatoxins were detectable, aflatoxin B1 was generally the major contributor to total aflatoxins. As a conservative estimate for the purposes of the evaluation, the CONTAM Panel assumed that total aflatoxins would be a maximum of twice the level of aflatoxin B1. The CONTAM Panel also received data relating to concentrations of aflatoxin M1 (the major metabolite of aflatoxin B1) in commercial milk samples. For almost all of these data, the values for the aflatoxin M1 concentration were below 0.05 µg/kg and taking into account the lower carcinogenic potency of M1 the Panel did not consider these data further.In order to assess the impact of a possible change in the maximum levels for almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, the CONTAM Panel estimated dietary exposure excluding occurrence data above 4, 8 and 10 µg/kg, respectively. These calculations indicated that increasing the maximum levels of total aflatoxins from 4 to 8 or 10 µg/kg could result in slight absolute increases in total aflatoxins in almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, but that the mean concentrations would remain below 1 µg/kg according to the submitted test results.Assessment of the impact of these potential increases in aflatoxin occurrence requires consideration of both the consumption of these three types of nut and the intake from other dietary sources. Robust data on other sources of dietary exposure, representative of all Member States, were not available to the CONTAM Panel. Evaluation of the few available national dietary exposure data indicated that a reasonable approxi...