Studies on contamination level of aflatoxins in Pakistani rice

Aflatoxins (af) are highly toxic and carcinogenic secondary fungal metabolites and have been detected in various food commodities including cereals. rice samples collected during 2008-2009 were analyzed for aflatoxin b1 (afb1),aflatoxin b2 (afb2),aflatoxin g1 (afg1) and aflatoxin g2 (afg 2) by thin layer chromatographic (tlc) technique. in total,40 rice samples were collected and after dividing samples to sub-samples,af analyses were carried out. afb1 was detected in 28 samples (70 % of the total). the mean of afb1 was 3.7ng/g for all samples. total af (aft) was detected in 28 samples (70 % of the total). the mean of aft was 4.9ng/g for all samples. afb1 levels in 20 samples were below the maximum tolerated level (mtl) of afb1 (2ng/g). regarding aft,the mean contamination level (4.9ng/g) was higher than the eu maximum permissible level for aft (4ng/g).