Recent situation on aflatoxins contamination in selected agricultural commodities in Thailand
Mycotoxins are substances produced by certain strain of fungi and they come into the picture on the negative side of food availability and consumption. Among them, the aflatoxins are the most well known and can occur in many valuable products from plant origin, such as peanut products, job’s tear, hairy basil seed, dried chili, etc.. One aspect that all these products have in common is that they are produced mainly in regions with warm and high humidity climate. Thailand is one of the world leading agricultural suppliers and is located in the tropical zone with the hot and high humidity climate so the contamination of aflatoxins is an unavoidable problem and must be overcome. In the last 5 years, Thailand received the notifications from the importing country on the over-legislation limits of aflatoxins contamination in several agricultural commodities, i.e. peanut products, hairy basil seed, Job’s tear and dried chili. Therefore it is necessary to set up the prevention and control measure of aflatoxins and to provide the mechanism on the establishment of inspection and certification system. The “From Farm to Table” concept as well as “The Food Safety Roadmap” is the “must do” issue by The Department of Agriculture as the main department under The Ministry of Agriculture and cooperatives which is directly responsible for the food safety strategies mainly on crops in order to control the agricultural commodity so as to meet standard for the sake of safety as well as to comply with international obligation.