A SYSTEMATIC META-ANALYSIS OF AFLATOXIN B1 PRESENCE IN RED PEPPER

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

Aflatoxins are one of the pollutants that can be isolated from the dried food products, especially spices. Since red pepper is one of the most consumed spices all over the world, this research aimed to estimate the prevalence and concen-tration of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in different red pepper spices with the help of a systematic review and meta-analysis. Therefore, the articles published between January 2000 and December 6, 2020, were systematically collected from four well-known databases. In this context, 10 articles containing 455 samples in total among 981 articles were included in the meta-analysis according to the determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. According to the analysis results, the AFB1 prevalence of all studies was determined as 50.8%. The lowest and highest AFB1 concentrations were observed in seasoning paprika Korea (0.14 mg/kg) and Turkey (31.13 mg/kg), respectively. The result of this meta-analysis can be used in the evaluation and organization of solution actions to be devel-oped to reduce AFB1 exposure and prevent financial losses through the con-sumption of red pepper spice products.