India is the world's largest exporter of groundnuts. A major food safety concern affecting these exports is aflatoxin contamination, which poses significant health risks and acts as a barrier to trade, as contaminated shipments are often rejected by importing countries. To address this issue, the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (CCCF) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission established a Code of Practice (CoP) in 2004 for the prevention and reduction of aflatoxin contamination in peanuts. This CoP provides comprehensive guidelines for controlling aflatoxins at all stages, including pre-harvest, harvest, transport, storage, and processing. A revision of the CoP is currently underway and is expected to be completed by 2027 or earlier.
The purpose of this PPG is to develop a project proposal aimed at mitigating aflatoxin contamination in India's peanuts, building on the work of Codex in this area.