Mycotoxin and aflatoxin testing for products

Which mycotoxins does this panel cover?

The panel covers the five results that supplement, food and hemp specifications ask for most often. Aflatoxins are reported one by one and as a total, because FDA writes its aflatoxin action levels for total aflatoxins, the sum of B1, B2, G1 and G2.

Mycotoxins in this panel. Mold sources and commodities from FDA's Mycotoxins page and Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 555.400.

Some buyer specifications also list other mycotoxins, such as deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisins, zearalenone or T-2 and HT-2 toxins. This panel does not include them, so check your specification against the list above before you submit a sample.

Which ingredients carry the most aflatoxin risk?

Mycotoxins form when mold grows on a crop in the field, while it dries or while it is stored. FDA notes that temperature, humidity and rainfall before, during and after harvest influence whether aflatoxin-producing molds grow. Because the risk travels with the raw material, your ingredient list is the best guide:

• Botanicals and roots: dried herbs, roots and barks such as turmeric, ginger and licorice root are often grown and dried in warm climates, where drying conditions vary from lot to lot.
• Spices: chili, paprika, nutmeg and pepper come from warm growing regions and are often dried in the open.
• Nuts and seeds: peanuts, Brazil nuts and pistachios each have their own FDA aflatoxin guide, and nut butters and protein powders made from them carry the same risk.
• Grains: corn and rice for aflatoxins, and wheat, rye, oats and barley for ochratoxin A, according to FDA.
• Cacao and coffee: FDA lists coffee among the foods where ochratoxin A has been found, and cacao beans go through fermentation and drying on the farm, both steps where mold can take hold.
• Hemp extracts: extraction concentrates whatever the plant material carried, and many state hemp programs include mycotoxins in their product testing rules.

Contamination changes with every harvest and storage history, so test each new supplier and each new lot of a high-risk ingredient rather than relying on one old result.

What are the FDA action levels for aflatoxins?

FDA does not set aflatoxin limits by regulation. It publishes action levels in Compliance Policy Guides (CPGs): levels above which FDA may consider a food or animal food adulterated under section 402(a)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. FDA states that action levels are not binding on the courts, the industry or the agency, and that enforcement can still happen below them.

FDA aflatoxin action levels, from FDA's guidance Action Levels for Poisonous or Deleterious Substances in Human Food and Animal Feed and the Compliance Policy Guides named in each row.

Figures checked against the sources below on 3 November 2026; rules change, so confirm the current version before relying on them.

Which limit applies to a dietary supplement?

Federal law treats dietary supplements as a category of food, but none of FDA's aflatoxin guides is written specifically for supplements, and FDA's action-levels guidance has no entry for ochratoxin A. The supplement CGMP rule, 21 CFR 111.70(b)(3), requires manufacturers to "establish limits on those types of contamination that may adulterate or may lead to adulteration of the finished batch of the dietary supplement". In practice the number comes from the buyer's or brand's specification. Common reference points are:

• the 20 ppb total-aflatoxin level FDA applies to human foods, often used as an upper bound;
• a separate, lower limit on aflatoxin B1 alone, which some buyers set alongside the total;
• a limit in a compendial monograph for the specific ingredient, where one exists;
• the maximum levels in Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915, for products also sold in the European Union, which cover ochratoxin A as well as aflatoxins.

Write the analytes and the limit into your specification before testing, then compare each CoA result with that limit.

How are mycotoxin results reported?

Mycotoxins are reported by weight of sample, usually in parts per billion (ppb), which is the same as micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg). FDA's own laboratories now use a multi-mycotoxin liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method validated for twelve mycotoxins in human food, and LC-MS/MS is the technique listed for this panel on our contaminant testing page. For each analyte, a useful report shows:

• the result, or a below-LOQ entry when the amount is under the limit of quantitation;
• the LOQ itself, so you can see whether the test is sensitive enough for your limit (an LOQ above your limit cannot show a pass);
• the total aflatoxin figure, and how results below the LOQ were handled when the four were added up, since conventions differ;
• the limit you asked us to compare against, and whether the result meets it.

A result describes the sample that was tested. Mold contamination is often patchy, especially in nuts and whole spices, so a sample drawn from across the lot matters as much as the analysis. Tell us what the sample represents when you send it, and we confirm the method and sample amount with your quote.

Is this the same as a mold-exposure test for people?

No. Urine mycotoxin tests and mold-exposure panels for people are clinical tests ordered through a healthcare provider, and they are not covered here; this page is about testing products and ingredients.

Questions about this page

Sources: FDA: Guidance for Industry: Action Levels for Poisonous or Deleterious Substances in Human Food and Animal Feed · FDA Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 555.400: Aflatoxins in Human Food (June 2021) · FDA Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 570.375: Aflatoxins in Peanuts and Peanut Products · FDA Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 683.100: Action Levels for Aflatoxins in Animal Food (March 2019) · FDA: Mycotoxins · 21 CFR 111.70: What specifications must you establish? (eCFR)
Last reviewed: 3 November 2026