Bulgaria steps up state checks for mycotoxins in milk, dairy and feed

Bulgaria has stepped up state testing for mycotoxins and aflatoxins in milk, dairy products and animal feed, Agriculture and Food Minister Plamen Abrovski told the National Assembly during parliamentary question time, the Bulgarian outlet blitz.bg reported.

Parliamentary control is the weekly session in which Bulgarian ministers answer questions from deputies. According to blitz.bg, Abrovski described the reinforced controls as covering the whole dairy chain: raw milk, processed dairy products and the feed used on farms. The report of his statement did not include the number of samples taken, the share of results above legal limits, the regions involved, or the period covered by the stepped-up checks. No companies were named.

Feed, not the plant, is the control point

Aflatoxins are a subgroup of mycotoxins, toxic compounds produced by moulds that colonise crops in the field and during storage. Their route into dairy is indirect. Aflatoxin B1 present in contaminated feed, typically maize, other cereals or oilseed meals such as sunflower cake, is metabolised by lactating cows and excreted in milk as aflatoxin M1. Contamination therefore enters the chain upstream of the processing plant.

That sequence explains why the minister linked milk, dairy products and feed in a single announcement. Pasteurisation and other standard heat treatments do not destroy aflatoxin M1, so a contaminated raw-milk intake cannot be corrected downstream. For producers, the practical levers are feed supplier selection, analysis of incoming feed lots, and storage conditions on the farm, where heat and moisture drive mould growth. Carry-over from feed into milk occurs within days, which is why control regimes usually pair feed screening with checks on raw milk at collection.

Compliance exposure across the dairy chain

Aflatoxin M1 is among the most tightly controlled contaminants in EU food law, with maximum levels applying to raw milk, heat-treated milk and milk used as an ingredient in dairy products. Bulgaria is an EU member state, so milk or dairy above those levels is not marketable in Bulgaria or anywhere else in the single market. Non-compliant lots face withdrawal, recall and destruction rather than discounting.

The exposure is unevenly distributed. Collectors and small processors that pool raw milk from many farms carry the highest risk, because a single contaminated delivery can take an entire tank out of specification. Feed importers and compounders face a different consequence: tighter documentation, pre-shipment analysis and stricter acceptance criteria on maize and oilseed meals. Cross-border trade in raw milk and feed ingredients is routine inside the EU, so heavier Bulgarian sampling also reaches suppliers in neighbouring markets that ship into the country.

What remains unclear

The account of the parliamentary exchange published by blitz.bg leaves several questions open for the industry:

• Whether the intensified checks are preventive or a response to specific non-compliant findings, and whether any results will be published.
• Whether the additional sampling is temporary and tied to harvest and storage conditions in the current feed crop, or a permanent increase in control frequency.
• Who carries the cost of the extra testing, the state control system, processors or farms, and whether sampling frequency at collection points rises.

In the reported account, Abrovski set out no timetable or budget for the expanded programme. For processors and feed buyers in Bulgaria, the immediate implication is procedural rather than commercial: documentation, traceability of feed lots and testing records become the first thing an inspection will ask for.