The Evaluation of Aflatoxin M1 Level in Collected Raw Milk for Pasteurized Dairy Factories of Kermanshah

Aflatoxins are fungal toxins that have carcinogenic, cellular mutations and malformation effects. Aflatoxin M1 resists pasteurization, autoclave and the other methods that make foodstuff healthy. This study aims to determine the contents of aflatoxin M1 in raw milk of milk factories in Kermanshah province. This research is carried out through the descriptive-cross sectional method. Among the raw milk received by four pasteurized milk factories in Kermanshah, coded by (A, B, C, D) labels, six samples, totally 320 samples (80 samples from each factory), were taken within four seasons. The concentration of aflatoxin M1 was examined by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The mean difference was analyzed statistically through t-test using SPSS software. The content of aflatoxin was higher than Codex standard (0.5 µg/l) in 295 samples. The total mean was 1.21, which exceeds two times the Codex standard. The highest and lowest contents of aflatoxin M1 were observed in “Factory D” in spring and in “Factory A” in autumn, respectively. There was a significant difference between contamination of aflatoxin M1 and different seasons (p< 0.05). High content of aflatoxin M1 in raw milk is worrying. Measuring the content of aflatoxin M1 is essential to reduce the toxin entering the daily food of animals and the other related factors. The considerable difference of aflatoxin M1 content between Factory D and Factory A can be attributed to the amount of the local milk and the industrial milk received by the factories.