Occurrence of aflatoxins and diffusion of Aspergillus flavus aflatoxin-producing strains on food and feed in Sicily (Southern Italy)

This paper reports on some researches carried out during the years 1986-1995 on the diffusion of aflatoxin and aflatoxin-producing strains belonging to the ''A. flavus group'' in Sicilian foodstuffs. Aflatoxin B-1 was detected in 9.2% of 164 animal feeds and 8.3% of 60 human foods; aflatoxin B-2 was detected in 1.8% of feedstuffs. A. flavus strains were isolated in 42% of examined samples. More than one third of the tested strains produced aflatoxins in laboratory media. In contrast with the low percentage of contaminated samples by aflatoxins, aflatoxin-producing strains in food and feed are very diffused and thus their presence should be considered as an alarm for a potential aflatoxins contamination of Sicilian foodstuffs.