Inactivation of aflatoxins in peanut and cottonseed meals by ammoniation

Aflatoxins in peanut and cottonseed meal can be inactivated by treatment with gaseous ammonia. In pilot plant runs, contaminated peanut meal was ammoniated at two levels each of moisture content, reaction time, temperature and ammonia pressure. Thin layer chromatography indicated that ammoniation inactivated the aflatoxins (121 ppb) in the meal to a nondetectable level. With a similar treatment, total aflatoxins (350 ppb) in cottonseed meal were reduced to 4 ppb. A series of runs was made with large scale equipment using cottonseed meal containing an average of 519 ppb total aflatoxins. Under optimum processing conditions, aflatoxin content of this meal was reduced to below 5 ppb and non‐detectable levels.