It’s Peanut Butter ‘N’ Jelly Time

After today’s class discussion, I began to wonder what other foods (besides overcooked meat) in a person’s daily diet may contain carcinogens. While searching online, one particular food item continually caught my eye, and I decided to do further research on it. Yet, the results I obtained were mixed. In the early 1980’s, it was discovered that aflatoxin, a compound that invades a number of organic substrates including corn, peanuts, and a variety of other crops, was toxic and carcinogenic. Aflatoxin is a mycotoxin that is produced by the Aspergillus flavus fungus that resides in the soil (often near decaying vegetation) in humid environments. Because of the close proximity of this fungus to a number of cultivated crops that are common in the human diet, aflatoxins may be found in a number of common foods, and if they are ingested in large quantities, they may ultimately lead to liver cancer. Another common food that aflatoxins may be present in is peanut butter. Yet, the FDA has put specific restrictions on the amount of aflatoxins that are allowed to be in consumed animal and human foods at 20 parts per billion. Although most sources claim that brand name peanut butters such as Peter Pan and Jif do not contain a high content of aflatoxins, certain sources claim that the aflatoxin content in peanut butter ground fresh in health food stores have a relatively high level of aflatoxins.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA115491

However, there are other sources that critique the level of aflatoxins found in peanuts, corn, and peanut butter. In a book called The China Study, a comprehensive study published on human health and nutrition, the author claimed that corn and peanuts are the foods that are the most contaminated with aflatoxins. Additionally, the author claimed that a study conducted tested the amount of aflatoxins present in 29 different brands of peanut butter found in local grocery stories, and the levels of aflatoxins in these brands exceeded the amount deemed safe by federal regulations by as much as 300 times.

http://www.danmurphydc.com/Aflatoxin.peanuts.pdf

This forces one to wonder if those peanut butter jelly sandwiches that we were given as kids are really safe.