OCCURRENCE OF ASPERGILLUS FLAVUS AND AFLATOXIN B1 IN PADDY AND IT MILLING FRACTIONS WITH REFERENCE TO NORMAL AND CONTROLLED MILLING ENVIRONMENT

The contamination of Rice and its by-products with storage fungi, especially toxigenic Aspergillus flavus and Aflatoxin B₁ leads to potential health hazard to human and domestic animals. Therefore, the present investigation was focussed on the comparative analysis of the fungal contamination with A. flavus and Aflatoxin B₁ in Raw and Parboiled paddy and its milling fractions like Husk, Brow Rice, Polished rice and rice bran in a normal rice mill and controlled mill environment. The results of the study indicated that the raw and parboiled paddy showed 100% contamination with fungi in untreated grains in which A. flavus occurred 63% and 77%, respectively. The level of Aflatoxin B₁ in untreated Raw and Parboiled paddy was 36 ppb and 50 ppb, respectively. The husk analyzed for the presence of fungal contamination showed 100%, 85%, and the A. flavus was 43%, 30% respectively for Raw and Parboiled grains. But there is no Aflatoxin B₁. Found in either of the husk samples. The brown rice exhibited almost closer to the untreated Raw and Parboiled paddy for both A. flavus contamination and the presence of Aflatoxin B₁. The Polished rice showed a low level of contamination with A. flavus and Aflatoxin B₁ in both normal and controlled milling environments. In Rice bran of Raw and Parboiled paddy, the levels of A. flavus ranging from 12,000 cfu/g to 28,000 cfu/g.  However, the bran showed a moderate to a high level of Aflatoxin B₁ contamination as 120 ppb in Raw rice bran to 150 ppb in parboiled rice bran, whereas the parboiled rice bran of controlled mill environment showed only 10 ppb. Thus, the present study concludes that the controlled milling environment shows a lower level of contamination of fungi as well as aflatoxin B₁ than normal milling environment, which leads to requiring sanitation practice that may give a reduction of fungal load as well as Aflatoxin B₁ contamination in some extent.