Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) as a 4-hydroxylated metabolite of carcinogenic mycotoxin Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is considered as an acute toxic compound found in milk and its derived products (1). Regarding the critical public health issue induced by AFM1 and as milk is essential in human food chain, its maximum limit has been set by regulatory agencies considering the economic status and development of the countries (4). The maximum permissible limit for AFM1 is 50 ng/kg (different countries including European Union (EU) members) to 100 ng/kg (different countries including USA) (5). In Iran, it has been regulated as 100 ng/kg (6). To the best of our knowledge, there is several similar systematic review and meta-analysis about the contamination of campylobacter in milk, globally and specifically in Iran (4, 5, 7-10). However, we will try to examine the mean and prevalence of AFM1 in different type of milk (cow, sheep, goat, raw, processed) in different region of Iran with long time interval (1974-2021). Moreover, more general and specific databases and grey literature with excellent eligibility criteria will be applied to have a more comprehensive review leading to an interesting finding by techniques such as risk of bias assessment (for assessing quality of included studies), publication bias assessment, finding the source of heterogeneity by sub-group analysis in addition to meta-analysis process.
The contamination rate of Aflatoxin M1 in milk samples of Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol
