Description
Alan Milton, American Blanching Company. Presented at the 2013 conference
In the early 1960s, a mysterious ailment, dubbed Turkey “X” disease, killed thousands of turkey poults in Great Britain around the London area.The deaths were linked to a specific shipment of Brazilian groundnut (or peanut) meal.Research eventually discovered that the toxic agent responsible for the deaths was a metabolite of Aspergillus flavus mold. A. flavus toxin, or aflatoxin, is now known to contaminate cotton seed, corn,tree nuts,spices, figs and other foods. Because of theTurkey “X” disease incident, however, aflatoxin became strongly associated with peanuts and in 1965 the peanut industry and the USDA jointly agreed to “regulate the quality of domestically produced peanuts.”The resulting Marketing Agreement for Peanuts 146 was enforced through the Peanut Administrative Committee (PAC) and the sale of peanuts in the United States began to carry requirements designed to control the factors associated with aflatoxin and to provide for chemical analysis before being allowed to enter the food chain. The PAC was eliminated by legislation in 2002 and the program currently is administered under Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 996 and includes imported peanuts.
