Equipment and application for ozone degradation of aflatoxins in contaminated peanuts

In order to effectively degrade aflatoxins in peanuts, an equipment for detoxifying aflatoxins by ozone was designed. The effects of ozone treatment time and relative humidity on detoxification of aflatoxins in artificially contaminated peanuts were studied by using the designed equipment. The results showed that aflatoxins in peanuts could be degraded effectively by ozone, and exposure time and relative humidity of ozone could influence their degradation efficiency obviously (P＜0.05). The better conditions for degrading aflatoxins in peanuts were that the relative humidity of ozone was 50% and the exposure time was 30 minutes at the ozone concentration 89 mg/L, flow rate of ozone 1 L/min, and stirring speed 70 r/min. Under the conditions, the contents of aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 in peanuts were decomposed from 87.53、21.99、9.71 and 4.38 μg/kg to 15.23、8.31、2.81 and 2.11 μg/kg，respectively, and their degradation rates were 82.6%, 62.2%, 71.1% and 51.8%, respectively. The results provide technical references for peanut storage and processing enterprises to reduce aflatoxins in peanuts, and ensure the safety of peanuts to eat.