Occurrence of aflatoxins in Turkish desserts, cheese helva and hosmerim

Abstract

A total of 100 cheese helva and hosmerim samples from 9 different producers in the Marmara Region of Turkey were analysed for aflatoxins by ELISA. The results were confirmed by HPLC/FLD. 8.0% of the samples were found to be positive for Total Aflatoxin by ELISA. The concentrations of Total Aflatoxin and Aflatoxin B-1 in cheese helva and hosmerim samples were in the range of 1.23-6.41 mu g/kg and 1.07-3.59 mu g/kg, respectively. By HPLC, only in one cheese helva (1%) sample Total AF could be detected at a concentration of 3.88 mu g/kg. The concentrations of the positive sample for AFB(1) and AFG(1) were 0.59 and 3.29 mu g/kg, respectively. This paper represents the first survey for the presence of aflatoxins in these traditional Turkish desserts.