Aflatoxin in peanuts! Please Help. (1 Viewer)

[razorsharp]

Hello,
I have just bought a large sack of peanuts from a pet shop, it cost me €40 and I just read this on the side of it when I got home:
"Product must be subject to sorting or other physical treatment to reduce aflatoxin contamination before human consumption or use as an ingredient in foodstuff"
Does this mean it needs to be treated before I give it to birds or to store it so it won't get aflatoxin?
If it has aflatoxin is there a way to get rid of it or will I bring it back?

Please Help!

 

[KC Foggin]

Well, I just got an education. Something I had never heard of before but apparently it is a standard warning on all the foods susceptible to this fungi here in the states, peanuts being one of them.

It has to do with the storage conditions and under certain conditions, i.e. humidity this fungi can be formed. That said, I don't believe I would buy large quantities of the peanuts in the future as the risk is higher in storage of the nuts. I would stick with smaller bags, especially in the warm months. More expensive buying it this way but safer. Animals as well as humans are susceptible to this fungi.

 

[razorsharp]

Thanks KCFoggin, I think I will buy smaller bags in future.
Just to be clear are you saying that they should be fine if they are stored proparly and not for too long and that they shouldn't contain aflatoxin after I have purchased them. Are they supposed to look different to peanuts without aflatoxin? Do they look different?

 

[KC Foggin]

As far as I know and from what I have read, in a sealed bag, there is little chance of the fungi forming again if stored properly. Again, in the future, I would stick to smaller bags where I know the contents would be depleted quickly enough. I suppose any peanuts left in feeders for a period of time would be susceptible to this as well so I would discard any that have been in the feeders for too long. Fat chance of that happening here though.

 

[KLH]

My neighbour buys large bags of monkeynuts that she puts out for the squirrels. Does this fungi occur only in shelled nuts or can it occur in monkeynuts still in their shells. If so, I'm going to haul her in here tonight and show her this thread, as she could be unwittingly harming the birds. There are discarded monkeynut shells everywhere in the garden, she fills a tray daily that she has fixed to a tree. She buys large bags of these, so interested to know.

 

[KC Foggin]

I'm not sure what our equivalent of the monkey nut is. This is a paper written by our Food and Drug Administration on Aflatoxins:

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap41.html

I am sure a google search will turn up more than you want to know about this fungi.

 

[razorsharp]

Thanks for that KC I will be sure to buy smaller bags in future, it was in a kind of a burlap sack, and I have e-mailed the company to find out for sure. Thanks for the info.

Oh yes, monkey nuts are peanuts, KLH just means just with the shell on them.

 

[Marmot]

KC ....Monkey nuts are our name for the peanuts with the shell on. Don't ask me why we call them that as we have no monkeys in the UK, although Hartlepool a few miles down the road from us are well known for a story about a Monkey which had been on a French ship during the Napoleonic wars which had shipwrecked near Hartlepool. The Monkey was found in the wreckage in a uniform and was hung as being a possible spy. (who said us English are strange )

http://foodallergens.ifr.ac.uk/food.lasso?selected_food=38

According to a friend who is in the bird food trade there has been problems getting nuts as quite a lot of the really large supplies are being bought as bio fuel.

 

[KLH]

I don't know why they are called monkeynuts myself. They sell them in shops in town by the bag for tourists to feed the squirrels in the parks.

 

[dafi]

Thanks KCFoggin, I think I will buy smaller bags in future.
Just to be clear are you saying that they should be fine if they are stored proparly and not for too long and that they shouldn't contain aflatoxin after I have purchased them. Are they supposed to look different to peanuts without aflatoxin? Do they look different?

i think the best rule of thumb is dont use if they look at all like they are going mouldy. the same with feeders if they are not getting eaten then discard. I think the toxin is in the mould.[i may be wrong yet again tho!]

 

[KC Foggin]

No Dafi, from what I have read, you are not wrong.

 

[razorsharp]

Could any of you post a picture of what your peanuts look like, just to compare please. The ones I got looklike the following:
-Whole peanuts, some a little wrinkly others not too bad.
-Ones in half are kinda dirty looking.
-When I break the whole ones in half the insides look perfectly fine.

The pictures I took don't come up very clear but I think you may be able to picture them.

 

[razorsharp]

Being very concerned with this problem I e-mailed the company and this was there reply:

"Last Saterday we received a email from you asking us about aflatoxin content on peanuts.

Let me explain you:

Lets start with aflatoxin, is a micotoxin and there are 4 types.

B1, the most dangerous. B2. G1 & G2.-

The Eu regulations states that for direct human consuption aflatoxin content must be as maximun less than 2 parts per billion and less than 4 parts per billion per total = B1 +B2+ G1+ G2 . But it could be -8 for B1 & -15 for B1+B2+G1+G2. if before human consuption peanuts are subject of other physical treatment such as heating.

But of course the contains of aflatoxin for peanuts for birdfeeding pourposes are less restricted. It is permitted maximun till 20 ppb in B1. That means that if one bird eats peanuts will die?? NO. it is normal in wildlife. To die eating this levels of alflatoxin one bird will have to eat at least 10 tons of peanuts. Something that I m sure it wont happen in a bird lifetime.

I really hope I helped you to understand

Best regards,"



They wouldn't lie to me would they?

 

[Jonathan Hare]

KC ....Monkey nuts are our name for the peanuts with the shell on. Don't ask me why we call them that as we have no monkeys in the UK, although Hartlepool a few miles down the road from us are well known for a story about a Monkey which had been on a French ship during the Napoleonic wars which had shipwrecked near Hartlepool. The Monkey was found in the wreckage in a uniform and was hung as being a possible spy. (who said us English are strange )

http://foodallergens.ifr.ac.uk/food.lasso?selected_food=38

According to a friend who is in the bird food trade there has been problems getting nuts as quite a lot of the really large supplies are being bought as bio fuel.

Hush, Im from Hartlepool (well not the "Real Hartlepool" (the Headland area now), Im from the old West Hartlepool).

Im thinking of getting some Monkey Nuts, to see what birds will make of them.