A survey on the occurrence of aflatoxin M1 in raw and processed milk samples marketed in Lebanon

A survey was conducted to determine the occurrence of AFM1 in 77 cow and goat milk samples (38 raw milk, 25 pasteurized milk and 14 powder milk samples); obtained either from local small farms, or markets. The competitive enzyme – linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was applied for this purpose positively detecting AFM1 in 64.9% of all tested milk samples. The revealed rates of AFM1 contamination were 73.6%, 68.0%, 35.7% for the raw, pasteurized and powder milk samples, respectively. The individual values, within each category of milk samples, ranged from 2.63 to 126 ng/l (average = 60 ng/l), 3.27–84.4 ng/l (average = 30.6 ng/l) and 9.18–16.5 ng/l (average = 13.7 ng/l) for the raw, pasteurized and powder milk samples, respectively. Of the positive samples, 29 were still below the permitted limit (50 ng/l) set by the European Commission whereas 21 exceeded the permissible limit. This work represents the data of the first survey on the occurrence of AFM1 in raw and processed milk marketed and consumed in Lebanon.