Quantitation of aflatoxins in pistachios and groundnuts using HPLC-FLD method

In this study, a sensitive high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector,(HPLC-FLD) method after post-column derivatisation was applied for the presence of aflatoxins (AFs) in 151 pistachios and 151 groundnuts from Turkey. Samples were collected between January 2010 and December 2012 in two provinces of Turkey and. checked for AFs levels. Quantification limits were 0.11, 0.11, 0.12 and 0.14 mu g kg(-1) for aflatoxin B-1 (AFB(1)), aflatoxin B-2 (AFB(2)), aflatoxin G(1) (AFG(1)) and aflatoxin (AFG(2)), respectively. AFs were present in 14.6% of pistachios (22/151) and 19.2% of groundnuts (29/151) at total AFs levels ranging from 0.26 to 385 mu g kg(-1) and from 0.16 to 60.9 mu g kg(-1), respectively. Seven pistachio samples were above the European maximum tolerable limit (MTL) of 8 mu g kg(-1) for AFB(1), while total AFs concentration exceeded the MTL of 10 mu g kg(-1) in eight pistachio samples. For groundnuts, eight and six samples exceeded MTL of 2 and 4 mu g kg(-1) for AFB(1) and total AFs, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.