Abstract
Approximately one-third of humankind is chronically exposed to the carcinogenic aflatoxin M(1) contained in milk. As β-cyclodextrin is frequently used in the food industry, its effect on aflatoxin M(1) concentration was investigated during cholesterol removal from milk due to the similarity among the physicochemical properties of aflatoxin M(1) and cholesterol. Moreover, the elimination of cholesterol using β-cyclodextrin has been successfully applied in many studies without any substantial effect on the quality of the treated milk. Therefore, milk samples were spiked with aflatoxin M(1) within the range from 0.20 to 2.00 µg/kg, and cholesterol removal was carried out by 2.0% (w/w) β-cyclodextrin addition, as this concentration is enough for the sufficient removal of cholesterol. It was found that the mean cholesterol concentration decreased by 92.3%, while the aflatoxin M(1) concentration decreased to 0.53 ± 0.04 µg/kg, i.e., by 39.1% after treatment (n = 2). This mitigation procedure itself is easy and inexpensive and thus is fully applicable with a high potential for complete decontamination of aflatoxin M(1) milk. This method will therefore considerably improve the food safety issues associated with aflatoxin M(1) presence in milk and dairy products.