Table 3.
Occurrence and levels of aflatoxin M1 (ng/kg) in various cheeses published in previous studies
| Location | Cheese type | No. of samples | No. positive samples (%) | Detection Method | Mean (ng/kg) | Range (ng/kg) | Exceeded regulation, n (%) | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qatar | Cheese | 46 | 39 (84.8) | ELISA | 197.74 | 1.21-217.15 | 0a | Hassan et al (20) |
| Iran | Traditional cheese | 360 | 194 (53.8) | ELISA | 139.4 | 50.5- 308.7 | 22 (10.5)a | Shahbazi et al (13) |
| Turkey | Cheese | 130 | 130 (100) | ELISA | 260.26 | 10-800 | 22 (17) | Altun et al (25) |
| Iran | Cheese | 100 | 52 (52) | ELISA | 133.2 | 50.2-424.4 | 8 (8)a | Sharifzadeh et al (26) |
| Iran | Cheese | 40 | 25 (65.5) | ELISA | 158.4 | 52.5-272 | 4 (10)a | Bahrami et al (27) |
| Serbia | cheese | 54 | 29 (53.70) | UHPLC-MS/MS | 324.07 | 80-2230 | 7 (13%) | Škrbić et al (28) |
| Turkey | White pickled cheese | 50 | 10 (20) | ELISA | 103.2 | 40.41-130.89 | 0a | Temamogullari and Kanici (29) |
| Iran | Cheese | 80 | 69 (86.3) | ELISA | 133.2 | 14.3-572.1 | 11 (13.8)a | Rahimi (30) |
| Brazil | Cheese | 10 | 3 (30) | HPLC | 160 | 91-300 | ND | Jager et al (31) |
| Iran | Lighvan cheese | 37 | 10 (27) | ELISA | 90.8 | 70.5-203 | 1 (2.7)b | Mohajeri et al (32) |
| Italy | Cheese | 17 | 7 (41.2) | HPLC | ND | <3-18 | 0 | Santini et al (33) |
| Iran | Cheese | 40 | 16 (40) | ELISA | 133.2 | 31.9-505.7 | 7 (17.5)a | Nilchian and Rahimi (34) |
| Turkey | Urfa cheese | 127 | 36 (28.3) | ELISA | 253.7 | 70.61-770.97 | 13 (10.2)a | Kav et al (35) |
ND: Not Determined; ELISA: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; HPLC: High-Performance Liquid Chromatography.
aThe European Community limit for aflatoxin M1 is 250 ng/kg for cheese
bAccording to Iranian Standard (200 ng/kg).