Decontamination of Aflatoxin in Food Using Microwave Oven

Abstract

Aflatoxin contamination in food, especially ground peanut and ground chili, is one of the serious problem for health of Thai people. Both ground peanut and ground chili are always added in many varieties of dishes. Consequently, the accumulation of aflatoxin occurred in human consumption with unavoidable. To reduce the risk of human consumption of aflatoxin contaminated food, we try to use the convenient and simple method which everybody can do by themselves. Hence, we try to utilize the microwave oven as the easy tool for decontamination of aflatoxin in food. The experiments were conducted using naturally contaminated ground peanut and ground chili from domestic market. The sample was mixed properly and divided for microwave oven treated and control. A set of samples was directly exposed to microwave oven at medium power level for 1, 3, 5 and 7 minutes. Whereas the other set all the sample were covered with glass lid while exposed in microwave oven. Aflatoxin was detected from both treated and untreated samples by direct competitive ELISA. Percentage of aflatoxin reduction in ground peanut when treated with microwave oven at medium power for 3 and 5 minutes were 25% and 49.25%, respectively. Aflatoxin was reduced 39% at 3 minutes heating time in ground chill. Whereas, percentage of aflatoxin reduction was 3.94, 23.8, 44.97 and 71.42 in ground peanut covered sample when treated with microwave oven for 1, 3, 5 and 7 minutes respectively. The results showed that microwave oven at medium power can reduce aflatoxin contamination in ground peanut and ground chili. Though it can not remove all but at least it can reduce risk of human consumption to take high amount of aflatoxin