Aflatoxins in spices marketed in Portugal

Seventy-nine prepackaged samples of 12 different types of spice powders (five cardamom, five cayenne pepper, eight chilli, five cloves, seven cumin, five curry powder, five ginger, five mustard, 10 nutmeg, 12 paprika, five saffron and seven white pepper) were selected from supermarkets and ethnic shops in Lisbon (Portugal) for estimation of aflatoxins by immmunoaffinity column clean-up followed by HPLC. Aflatoxin B (AFB1) was detected in 34 samples of prepackaged spices (43.0%). All of the cayenne pepper samples were contaminated with levels ranging from 2 to 32 µg AFB1/ kg. Three nutmeg samples contained levels ranging from 1 to 5 µg/kg, three samples had levels ranging from 6 to 20 µ g/kg, and there were two with 54 µg/kg and 58 µg/ kg. Paprika contained levels of aflatoxin B1 ranging from 1 to 20 µg/kg. Chilli, cumin, curry powder, saffron and white pepper samples had levels ranging from 1 to 5 µg/kg. Aflatoxins were not detected in cardamom, cloves, ginger and mustard. None of the samples analysed contained aflatoxins B2, G1 and G2.