Determination of the toxic metabolite aflatoxin M1 in raw, pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized milks comparing the ELISA Technique and High Performance Liquid Chromatography.

Aflatoxins are very potent toxic metabolites with car-cinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic, hepatotoxic and im-munosuppressive effects, which constitute a potential risk to human health, so they should be considered as a latent problem that requires continuous examination in order to ensure food quality.This study was carried out with the objective of quan-titatively determining the content of Aflatoxin M1 in three types of raw, pasteurized and ultrapasteurized milk consumed in the city of Cuenca-Ecuador, through the comparative analysis of the High Performance Liquid Chromatography HPLC Techniques, after an extraction process in immunoaffinity columns and the ELISA Te c h n i q u e .Eighty-four samples were analyzed in three types of milk: raw, pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized, with the ELISA technique, none exceeded the detection limit of Aflatoxin M1(125 ppt or 0.125 ppb), established both by the national INEN: 9-10 in force and the parameters established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Food and Drug Administration of the United States (0.5ppb) and with the High Performance Liquid Chromatography technique, 16 positive samples were found that were between the limit of detection and quantification (0.09 - 0.18 ppb.), obtaining a prevalence of 19%, so that the High Performance Liquid Chroma-tography technique is more sensitive in the quantitative detection of the toxic metabolite Aflatoxin M1 in milk.