Impact of Discoloration and Picking Practices of Red Chilies on Aflatoxin Levels

Red chili is amongst the important market commodities mainly for its pungency, color and their respective therapeutic significances. However, the persistence of aflatoxin contamination in chilies at higher levels is raising the health and economic risks. Post harvest practices may play as crucial role to make the red chilies physically damaged that may lead to increase the levels of aflatoxins. The present study investigated the differences in aflatoxin levels in red chilies with pedicle, without pedicle, normal and discolored pods. The results showed that aflatoxin was higher in discolored pods as well as chilies without pedicle. On an average, chilies with pedicle showed much lower levels of aflatoxins (4.46 ppb) than those without pedicle (9.16 ppb). The discolored chilies contained almost 10 times more (92.13 ppb) aflatoxins than the normal pods. The buildup of aflatoxins was found to be highly influenced (P<0.001) by pod discoloration, and absence of pedicle. These results can be beneficial for the understanding of the relation among aflatoxin levels in healthy and discolored chilies as well as chilies with and without pedicles.