Wednesday, 5 November 2025, 18:12
The EU has issued a “serious” food alert concerning high levels of a chemical that can cause, among other things, cancer detected in almonds originating from Spain.
The European food safety alert system (RASFF) has received the warning from Germany. The complaint reports a high amount of aflatoxin B1 in the product. According to the report from 29 October, the mycotoxin content cannot exceed 8 µg/kg – ppb. The analysis carried out on 10 October showed 36.4. The report does not reveal the brand that distributes the almonds in question.
Aflatoxin B1 is the aflatoxin most frequently found in food and one of the most potent genotoxic and carcinogenic aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by two types of Aspergillus – a fungus that grows in areas with warm and humid climates. Since aflatoxins are known to be genotoxic and carcinogenic, exposure through food should be kept as low as possible. Aflatoxins may be present in foods such as peanuts, nuts, maize, rice, figs and other dried foods, spices, raw vegetable oils and cocoa beans as a result of contamination before and after harvests.