Natural Food Contaminant: Aflatoxin


Aflatoxin Toxicity


Commonly Contaminated Crops


Aflatoxin B1


Aflatoxin Mechanism of Action














6 thoughts on “Natural Food Contaminant: Aflatoxin

  1. Hi! Thanks for the blog post. How can consumers tell which grains and nuts contain aflatoxins and which don’t? Also, I wasn’t familar with all the terms used in this blog post. What do the terms lipid peroxidation, oxidative stress and apoptosis mean and why are these things harmful?


    1. You can’t see or smell aflatoxin, so you wouldn’t know based off of that. Mostly, your location matters… how the country you reside in regulates it. Oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation have to with reactive oxygen species being generated, which cause oxidation, which if you think about “antioxidants” you want to prevent or counteract oxidation, so its not a good thing. Lipid peroxidation would be an example of damage from oxidative stress, in which the lipids within the membranes of cells are broken down. Oxidative stress can lead to cell damage causing cell death. Apoptosis is a type of cell death, another type of cell death being necrosis.


  2. Question…I come from a place and like to travel to places that are hot/humid. How would I or anyone avoid aflatoxins? Or are they harder to avoid in places like the West Indies? What can a vacationer/traveler do? What can the locals do?


    1. Well how many foods would you really be consuming while on vacation that are potentially contaminated with aflatoxin? Also the risk is greatest to those who are constantly exposed by engaging in agricultural work with the land, and eating unprocessed peanuts for example and stuff like that. I wouldn’t worry heavily about it.


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