DETERMINATION AND DETOXIFICATION OF TOTAL AFLATOXINS AND DEOXYNIVALENOL FROM DIFFERENT TYPES OF CEREALS AND PULSES COLLECTED FROM DIFFERENT AREAS

Mycotoxin contamination of food products poses a major risk to both human and animal health.In addition to posing a threat to human health and food safety, mycotoxins have a significant detrimental economic impact because of their effects on international trade, crop yields, and animal production.To ensure safe food, it is therefore vital to identify, measure, and reduce mycotoxins in food commodities, especially aflatoxins and deoxynivalenol (DON) in cereals and pulses.The current research investigated the concentrations of total aflatoxins and DON in a total 45 samples of cereals and pulses collected from different markets of Lahore, Pakistan, and assessed the utility of different physical and natural methods to minimize their levels.Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique was verified to identify aflatoxins and DON.ELISA is the easiest sensitive method for the quantification of mycotoxins in food entities.The results showed that 10 of 45 samples (22%) exceeded the EU regulatory limit for total aflatoxins, while 32 samples (71%) exceeded the EU (2023) regulatory limit for DON contaminants.The variety with the maximum concentration of total aflatoxins was wheat grains, while brown chickpeas had the maximum DON concentration.Also, there was a significant difference between total aflatoxins and DON in pulses samples at p < 0.05.On the other hand, physical detoxification treatments reduce such toxins by 25-46%, whereas natural detoxification treatments reduce them by 34-64% in which lemon juice showed effective removal of both total aflatoxins and DON contaminants.Thus, it is concluded that contamination of cereals and pulses with total aflatoxins and DON was quite high in the samples collected in Lahore, Pakistan.Furthermore, natural detoxification methods can greatly decrease the contamination of mycotoxins in cereals and pulses.