exposure to aflatoxin m1 through milk consumption in tehran population, iran

Milk would be contaminated with aflatoxin m1 (afm_1) if it was obtained from lactating animal which fed with feed stuffs containing aflatoxin b_1 (afb_1). afm_1 is classified as group 2b, possibly carcinogenic to humans and exposure to afm_1 through milk consumption is a public concern. the purpose of this study was to determine the afm_1 exposure through liquid milk consumption for adult consumers in tehran. forty five samples including raw, pasteurized and uht milk samples were collected from markets in different cities of tehran province in january and february 2017. the afm_1 was determined by hplc method after immunoaffinity column clean up. also, the milk intake was calculated using household budget survey. finally, the daily intake of afm_1 through milk consumption was estimated using a deterministic approach. from total 45 samples, afm_1 was detected in 36 (80%) samples, although none of the analyzed samples were exceeded iran legal limit of 0.1 µg/kg. on the basis of the average milk intake, the mean daily exposure to afm_1 was estimated between 0.03 ng/ kg bw per day (lower bound estimate) and 0.06 ng/ kg bw per day (upper bound estimate) and the 95th percentile daily exposure was calculated at 0.14 ng/ kg bw per day. according to these values, it should be expected adults of tehran population are not exposed to a significant risk of hepatocarcinoma associated with afm_1 intake through milk consumption.