Recently, EU published the 2016 report on Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). According to the report, the aflatoxin in Chinese nut products exported to Europe exceeded severely the limit with the total notification times in 2016 as 50 times.

As the general term of a group of chemicals with the similar structure, the aflatoxin is the metabolin generated by aspergillus flavus and parasitic aspergillus. At present, 12 types of chemicals including the toxins and aflatoxicols such as B1, B2, G1, G2, M2, etc. have been isolated and identified. Since the formation conditions of different chemicals are different, its source, distribution and toxicity are different as well. Of which, the limit exceeding of aflatoxin M1 & M2 is common in milk and the limit exceeding of B1 is common in nuts.

If the control on each link is improper, then the aflatoxin will exceed the limit, thus influencing the product export.The nut export enterprises shall export the products in strict accordance with the EU limit requirements. According to the EU limit requirements, the aflatoxin B1 limit and total aflatoxin B1+B2+G1+G2 limit for the peanuts, other oilseeds, nuts  and their products (excluding badam, pistachio nut, almond, filbert and Brazil nut) used for direct human consumption or serving as food ingredients are 2.0μg/kg and 4.0μg/kg respectively.

The nut export enterprises shall adopt effective measures to prevent and control the aflatoxin, conduct the aflatoxin detection according to relevant standards and export the products according to the EU limit requirements so as to prevent the export trade from being hindered.