Surveillance and control of aflatoxin contamination of dried figs and fig paste imported into the United Kingdom

Abstract

Samples of dried figs and fig pastes from Turkey supplied voluntarily by UK importers and retailers during the period November 1988 to January 1989 showed both a high incidence and high levels of contamination with aflatoxins. In the samples tested, 24% had total aflatoxin concentrations above 10 micrograms/kg, with the highest level being 165 micrograms/kg. More rigorous monitoring of the 1989 fig harvest was undertaken on bulk consignments for all figs from Turkey entering the UK. For whole dried figs 20 kg samples were taken (as 20 sub-samples), and for fig paste 5 kg samples were taken (again as 20 sub-samples). Figs were minced, blended with water and mixed prior to sub-sampling for analysis. Analysis was by immunoaffinity column clean-up with HPLC determination of aflatoxins with fluorescence detection. Examination showed that 11% of 112 consignments of fig paste and 9% of 93 consignments of whole dried figs were contaminated with total alfatoxin concentrations above 10 micrograms/kg, with the highest level of contamination being 40 micrograms/kg. As a result of this surveillance programme 14 consignments of figs were refused entry into the United Kingdom.

Figs

“…Dried figs or fig pastes imported from Turkey to the United Kingdom in 1988-1989 contained 9-24% aflatoxincontaminated product (Sharman et al, 1991). The survey conducted at the same period in Turkey showed similar results (Ozay and Alperden, 1991).…”

“…Other analytical approaches for revealing mycotoxincontaminated figs include thin-layer chromatography (TLC) (Allen, 1974), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (Baumann and Zimmerli, 1988;Sharman et al, 1991), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Reichert et al, 1988) and other immunoassays (Bacigalupo et al, 1994), polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (Farber et al, 1997), affinity liquid chromatography (MacDonald et al, 2003), and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) (Senyuva et al, 2005).…”

“…Additional products manufactured from figs include pastes (Sharman et al, 1991), jams (Wang et al, 2003), molasses (Hassan and El-Feitoh, 2003), dry sweet products such as "Churchkhela," "Tkbili Kveri" (Vibliani et al, 2009), juice and low-alcoholic beverages (Vibliani et al, 2009), and juice concentrate (Maftoonazad et al, 2009). Some of these products (e.g., molasses, pastes, wine) are derived from dried figs and may have the same mycotoxin problems as those discussed earlier (see Moller and Nilsson, 1991;Sharman et al, 1991).…”

Mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits: A review

“…Senyuva et al (2007) found that three 10-kg subsamples were usually not uniformly contaminated. The sample may be slurried with water before taking subsamples for analysis (Sharman et al 1991). For fig paste the sample size was 5 kg (Sharman et al 1991).…”

“…The sample may be slurried with water before taking subsamples for analysis (Sharman et al 1991). For fig paste the sample size was 5 kg (Sharman et al 1991).…”