An Assessment and Control of AFM₁ in Milk and Main Dairy Products in Lahore, Pakistan

The main objective of this study is to investigate the presence of Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in local and processed milk and main dairy products available in Lahore. Total 60 milk samples and 120 samples of dairy products including butter (n = 30), cheese (n = 30), cream (n = 30), and yogurt (n = 30) were collected. Milk samples were collected from 3 different sources i.e. unprocessed milk from local milk shop (n = 20) and a local dairy farm (n = 20), and processed milk sample from a commercial shop (n = 20) while samples of each dairy product were also different i.e. processed (n = 15) and unprocessed (n = 15). Milk samples were analyzed using kit method while dairy product samples were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique equipped with fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) followed by immunoaffinity column clean up. In second phase of the study, efficacy of three different toxin binders was compared and analyzed. The results showed that AFM1 was detected in 16.7% of processed butter samples, 33.3% of processed cheese samples, 13.3% of local cream samples and 26.6% of processed yogurt samples and these samples exceeds European Union (EU) permissible limits of 0.05 ppb with mean concentration 0.090 ± 0.180 μg/kg and 0.000 ± 0.000 μg/kg for processed and local butter samples, 0.350 ± 0.606 μg/kg and 0.000 ± 0.000 μg/kg for processed and local cheese samples, 0.000 ± 0.000 μg/kg and 0.542 ± 1.085 μg/kg for processed and local cream samples and 0.552 ± 1.001 μg/kg and 0.000 ± 0.000 μg/kg for processed and local yogurt samples, respectively. Moreover, milk samples showed highest AFM1 (62%) in local unprocessed dairy farm followed by samples from local milk shop (51%) and commercial dairy farm (31%). In addition, therapeutic efficacy of three different types of toxin binders showed that the toxin binder which had yeast wall (75%) and algae (25%) is the best to control AFM1 under field conditions. Overall, results of this study are valuable for dairy farmers on one hand and law enforcement authorities on the other to comprehend and control AFM1 problem in milk and main dairy products