Color sorting of lightly roasted and deskinned peanut kernels to diminish aflatoxin and retain the processing potency

Abstract Moistened peanut kernels were inoculated with conidiospores of Aspergillus parasiticus and incubated at ambient temperature for 35 days. Free fatty acid, free threonine, proline, glycine, alanine, leucine, tyrosine, lysine, phenylalanine, histidine and arginine contents increased while sucrose, free glutamic acid, aspartic acid and serine contents decreased in the inoculated peanuts. When the incubated kernels were roasted at 160°C, 15 min was appropriate to result in noticeable discoloration of the infected and deskinned kernels which were available for color sorting. Average aflatoxin content in the discolored sublots was 18,200 ppb and was not detected in the unblemished sublots. A success in application of this process in the commercial processing line to diminish aflatoxin and subjection of the sorted lots for further processing was achieved.