Efficiency of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae for detoxification of aflatoxin M1 in skim milk

Abstract

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a carcinogenic mycotoxin mostly found in dairy products. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti‐aflatoxin effect of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with two different concentrations (108 and 1010 cfu/mL), alone or mixed, in contaminated skim milk with three concentrations of AFM1 (0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 μg/mL) and incubated at 4, 25 and 37°C for different times (30, 60, 120 min and 24 h). We found that the storage time is a key factor that significantly affects AFM1 removal. Also, removal of AFM1 was dependent on other factors such as micro‐organisms' concentration, incubation temperature and toxin concentration. The effective strategy for the highest removal of AFM1 (90%) in contaminated milk spiked with 0.5 μg/mL, which was treated with mixed strains at concentration1010 cfu/mL and incubated at 37°C after 24 h. The presented methodology can be considered as a potential method for reducing the aflatoxin content of polluted dairy products.