Reduction of Aflatoxins in Apricot Kernels by Electronic and Manual Color Sorting

Abstract

The efficacy of color sorting on reducing aflatoxin levels in shelled apricot kernels was assessed. Naturally-contaminated kernels were submitted to an electronic optical sorter or blanched, peeled, and manually sorted to visually identify and sort discolored kernels (dark and spotted) from healthy ones. The samples obtained from the two sorting approaches were ground, homogenized, and analysed by HPLC-FLD for their aflatoxin content. A mass balance approach was used to measure the distribution of aflatoxins in the collected fractions. Aflatoxin B1 and B2 were identified and quantitated in all collected fractions at levels ranging from 1.7 to 22,451.5 µg/kg of AFB1 + AFB2, whereas AFG1 and AFG2 were not detected. Excellent results were obtained by manual sorting of peeled kernels since the removal of discolored kernels (2.6%–19.9% of total peeled kernels) removed 97.3%–99.5% of total aflatoxins. The combination of peeling and visual/manual separation of discolored kernels is a feasible strategy to remove 97%–99% of aflatoxins accumulated in naturally-contaminated samples. Electronic optical sorter gave highly variable results since the amount of AFB1 + AFB2 measured in rejected fractions (15%–18% of total kernels) ranged from 13% to 59% of total aflatoxins. An improved immunoaffinity-based HPLC-FLD method having low limits of detection for the four aflatoxins (0.01–0.05 µg/kg) was developed and used to monitor the occurrence of aflatoxins in 47 commercial products containing apricot kernels and/or almonds commercialized in Italy. Low aflatoxin levels were found in 38% of the tested samples and ranged from 0.06 to 1.50 μg/kg for AFB1 and from 0.06 to 1.79 μg/kg for total aflatoxins.

The Effect of Motion Time of a Scots Pine Single Seed on Mobile Optoelectronic Grader Efficiency: A Mathematical Patterning

“…The analysis shows that Equation (18) can be solved analytically, but Equations (23) and (27) require numerical study with initial conditions (solution of a Cauchy problem).…”

“…Overall dimensions and climatic design do not allow them to be used in the field. Most modern separation devices use a layer-by-layer seed recognition algorithm, which allows for "the reduction of the total execution time" [22] but can lead to "extremely unstable results" [23]. Therefore, for the processing of small volumes of forest seeds it is necessary to orient seeds on one [20] and to provide accurate and fast coordinated actions of optoelectronic [24,25] and mechanical systems [26] with use of a stochastic algorithm [27,28].…”

A Survey of the State of the Art in Sensor-Based Sorting Technology and Research

“…In addition to tasks related to seeds and hence mainly agricultural products, sensor-based sorting is also used in the industrial processing of a wide variety of foods, for example bulgur [19]. Safety-relevant application examples can be found in the reduction of aflatoxin contamination in apricot kernels [20] or the removal of coherbs containing livertoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids from the spice and medicinal plant crop [21]. Numerous applications also deal with the quality enhancement of nuts, for example pistachios [22] or almonds [23].…”

Mycotoxins in Mozambique: Need for a national monitoring programme

“…This strategy is crucial because it can change the minds of people living in these rural areas (localities and districts) and bring awareness to the danger related to the presence of mycotoxins in food. 50 Another strategy for controlling mycotoxins is to teach the techniques of good agronomic practices such as early harvesting; rapid drying 50 ; physical appearance separation by colour, size, and density (removal of small, shrivelled, mouldy, stained, and damaged seeds; discoloured or damaged/shrivelled pods; kernels that float in tap water) [51][52][53][54] . Sanitising the store before loading the food and feed, and desiccants (calcium chloride or silica gel) to remove moisture, and temperature control during storage are also recommended agronomic practices to reduce mycotoxin production.…”