Investigation of Aflatoxin M1 contamination in milk samples collected from Esfahan and Yazd provinces

Aflatoxin M1 contamination of collected milks from Esfahan and Yazd provinces has been studied. Twenty six milk samples (1 UHT milk, 8 raw and 17 pasteurized) from Yazd province and 37 raw milk samples from Esfahan province were analyzed by using HPLC and Immunoaffinity column determination. Results showed that milk samples of Yazd province had higher amount of aflatoxin M1 contamination than Esfahan. In Esfahan, 94.6% of milk samples had lower aflatoxin M1 than recommended amount for adult's consumption (0.05) while 76.9% of Yazd samples had lower amount than MTL (0.05). According to lower amount of MTL for infant food (0.02), 84/6 % of Yazd samples had higher contamination than infant MTL (0.02) while 43% of Esfahan samples were higher than (0.02). Since aflatoxin M1 is a heat resistance toxin, results of Yazd samples showed that pasteurized and UHT milk samples also had higher aflatoxin M1 contamination. Differences between afalatoxin M1 contaminant samples in Yazd and Esfahan provinces were significant (P<0.05)