13 novembre 2007

Aflatoxins in rice: do we have to worry about?

Commodities mainly contaminated by aflatoxins are corn, cereals, spices and dried fruits. Rice, even if it’s a very common cereal, has always been considered free from aflatoxins.

A recent news from RASFF (October 2007) has broken up this idea: at the Italian border a batch of basmati rice from Pakistan has been blocked because it was contaminated by aflatoxin B1 at 3,7 ppb.
Furthermore there are some data arising from an English study commissioned by Food Standard Agency that support the fact that basmati and black rices are often contaminated by aflatoxins.
This has to be taken into consideration because nowadays these rice varieties are always more spread between people.
To study in depth the topic, you can have a look at

www.food.gov.uk/...