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EFFICIENCY OF THE BLANCHING AND COLOR SORTING PROCESS IN REMOVING AFLATOXIN FROM RAW SHELLED PEANUT LOTS Aflatoxin, produced by several fungi, is a carcinogenic and toxic compound found on several agricultural commodities. The FDA has established maximum levels for food and feed products. The peanut industry inspects all domestic lots of raw shelled peanuts for aflatoxin before the peanuts are sent to a manufacturer of consumer-ready products. Because aflatoxin is associated with damaged kernels, the peanut industry attempts to reclaim peanut lots rejected by the testing program by first removing the red skin from each peanut kernel and then removing damaged kernels from the lot using electronic color sorters. The efficiency of this blanching process at reducing aflatoxin in peanut lots was measured.Results indicated that the blanching process is a very effective method of reducing aflatoxin in raw peanut lots. On the average, almost 91 percent of the aflatoxin in contaminated lots can be reduced by the blanching process. If blanching did not effectively reduce aflatoxin, peanut lots would be crushed for oil which has a much lower economic value than raw peanuts used for consumer-ready products. The blanching process allows the peanut industry to maintain high economic product values and at the same time maintain high consumer safety standards. |
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