A study on aflatoxin content in rolled oats available in domestic market of India

Abstract

Oat is an important cereal crop in developing worlds and the one of most commonly cultivated species is Avena sativa L. Oats possess beneficial effects against gastrointestinal problems, has anticancerous effects. Rolled oats are a type of lightly processed whole-grain food. Traditionally, they are made from oat groats that have been dehusked and steamed, before being rolled into flat flakes under heavy rollers and then stabilized by being lightly toasted. Rolled oats that are sold for porridge usually have had the tough outer bran removed. They have often, but not always, been lightly baked, pressure-cooked, or otherwise processed in some fashion. Thick-rolled oats are large whole flakes, and thin-rolled oats are smaller, fragmented flakes. Rolled whole oats, without further processing, can be cooked into a porridge and eaten as old-fashioned oats, but more highly fragmented and processed rolled oats absorb water much more easily and therefore cook faster into a porridge, so they are sometimes called "quick" or "instant" oats. Oats have high nutritional value. Oat based food products like breads, biscuits, cookies, probiotic drinks, rolled oats (instant oatmeal) are gaining increasing consideration. Rolled oat, which is more susceptible to absorb water, is often contaminated with mycotoxins such as aflatoxins. The aflatoxins are a group of chemically similar toxic fungal metabolites (mycotoxins) produced by certain moulds of the genus Aspergillus growing on a number of raw food commodities. Aflatoxins are highly toxic compounds and can cause both acute and chronic toxicity in humans and many other animals. The aflatoxins consist of about 20 similar compounds belonging to a group called the difuranocoumarins, but only four are naturally found in foods. These are aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2. Aflatoxin B1 is the most commonly found in food and also the most toxic and classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as 1st class carcinogen. To control the Contamination of Aflatoxin in Rolled oats, the oats to be free  from Aflatoxin contamination or contain the permissible limit of same. The objectives of this study was to determine the concentrations of  Aflatoxin B1 in Rolled Oats collected from different parts of India and also to assess whether the Rolled oats  were safe for human consumption.

The aflaoxin in Rolled oat has been analysed using HPTLC. Out of 59 samples of rolled oats analysed for Aflatoxin, all the samples were found to be free from Aflatoxin i.e  Below detection limit.  As per FSSAI, the maximum permissible limit for Aflatoxin is 30 ppb. The study showed that the Rolled oats samples collected from different parts of India were safe for human consumption.