Simultaneous detection of aflatoxin b1 and ochratoxin a in olive oil

A screening method has been developed for simultaneous determina-tion of aflatoxin B₁ and ochratoxin A in olive oil. The technique includes extraction of both mycotoxins with aqueous methanol, clean-up using lead acetate, partitioning in chloroform, and thin layer chromatography. The detection limits achieved are, respec-tively: 4 μg aflatoxin B₁ and 40 μg ochratoxin A/kg. 60 samples of crude farm olive oil were analyzed using this method: three of them contained traces of ochratoxin A while none was contaminated with aflatoxin B₁.