Abstract

Milk is considered a nutritionally noble food and is therefore suitable for feeding children and adults. However, contamination of milk by mycotoxins may pose a health risk to the consumer. Aflatoxins, mycotoxins produced by fungi of the genus Aspergillus, can be found in several food products, including milk and its derivatives, which reinforces the importance of this type of study on the occurrence of the aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁) in raw milk. We analyzed 45 samples of raw bovine milk from expansion tanks from 23 farms in different municipalities of the dairy belt of the state of Alagoas/Brazil. Samples were collected directly from the cooling tanks and transported under refrigeration for analysis. The method used for the extraction of AFM₁ was that proposed by the Adolfo Lutz Institute. On the other hand, the detection of AFM₁ occurred by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) by identifying retention times. The results of the analyses indicated that none of the collected samples presented contamination by aflatoxin M₁, thus indicating that the milk commercialized in Alagoas shows a good quality against this toxic agent.

Key words: Aflatoxin M1, bovine milk, Alagoas.