Investigation of efficiency of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae for detoxification of aflatoxin M1 in skim milk using HPLC analysis

Food contamination with aflatoxin is identified as a challenge for health and economics; therefore, global organizations have determined the minimum contamination of different foods. Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a carcinogenic mycotoxin mostly found in dairy products and its removal has remained a challenge. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of anti-aflatoxin of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in contaminated skim milk.

In order to carry out this project, skim milk was spiked with three concentrations of AFM1 and treated with two levels of bacteria and fungi concentration, alone or mixed, and incubated at 4 and 37 ˚C for different time points (30, 60, 120 min, and 24h). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the AFM1 in milk.

The results showed that the incubation time is a key factor in the removal process of AFM1. Also, the removal of AFM1 was dependent on other factors such as the concentration of microorganisms, incubation temperature, toxin concentration and type of treatment (alone or combination). The ability of these strains to remove AFM1 after 24 hours was shown to be 20-90%. The removal of AFM1 by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (66.8%) as compared to Bifidobacterium bifidum (51.3%), and the combination of probiotics increased their ability to remove the toxins (90%).

The results of this study showed that probiotics alone or in combination with each other play an essential role in removing AFM1 from milk.