Incidence and Levels of Aflatoxin M in Artisanal and Manufactured Cheese in Pernambuco State, Brazil.

Cheese is one of the most susceptible dairy foods to accumulating aflatoxins due to their high affinity to caseins. The consumption of cheese contaminated with high levels of aflatoxin M (AFM) can be highly harmful to humans. The present work, based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), highlights the frequency and levels of AFM in coalho and mozzarella cheese samples ( = 28) from the main cheese-processing plants in Araripe Sertão and Agreste in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil.