en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%">Background:&nbsp;</span></b><span style="line-height:115%">Aflatoxins (AFs), as secondary metabolites, are mainly produced by fungi of <em>Aspergillus</em> genus. The determination of contamination rate, dietary exposure, and health risk assessment for aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁) was conducted aimed to estimate potential health risks for the population of North Macedonia.</span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%">Methods:</span></b><span style="line-height:115%">&nbsp;A total of 974 dairy samples, including 404 Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) milk, 291 ice cream, 178 yogurt, and 101 cheese were collected from the markets in North Macedonia. Analysis of AFM₁ was done using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection</span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%">Results:</span></b><span style="line-height:115%">&nbsp;The AFM₁ incidence was highest in yogurt samples (93.8%) and lowest in UHT milk samples (67.8%). AFM₁ concentrations were 49.1&plusmn;68.4, 30.9&plusmn;30.0, 35.1&plusmn;40.4, and 40.1&plusmn;90.1 ng/kg for UHT milk, ice cream, yogurt, and cheese samples, respectively. The Estimated Daily Intake (EDI) for the average population and high consumers (upper bound; samples with AFM₁<Limit of Detection (LOD) were 0.150 and 0.456 ng/kg body weight (bw)/day, respectively. The Hazard Index (HI), Margin of Exposure (MoE), and the fraction of Hepatocarcinoma (HCC) cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the average population reached values of 0.33, 8533, and 0.004, respectively.<limit detection="" of=""></limit></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%">Conclusion:</span></b><span style="line-height:115%">&nbsp;To our best knowledge, this is the first report of dietary exposure and risk assessment of AFM₁ in dairy products of North Macedonia, revealing a potential risk of AFM₁ in population of this country.<br> <br> <strong>DOI:&nbsp;</strong></span>10.18502/jfqhc.9.1.9686<span style="line-height:115%"><strong>&nbsp;</strong></span></span></span></span></span></div> Aflatoxin M1, Milk, Dairy Products, Risk Assessment, Republic of North Macedonia 14 22 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-760-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 G. Ilievska 0000-0002-6411-6307 No Ss Cyril and Methodius University from Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine-Skopje, Lazar Pop-Trajkov 5-7, 1000, Skopje, North Macedonia B. Stojanovska-Dimzoska No Ss Cyril and Methodius University from Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine-Skopje, Lazar Pop-Trajkov 5-7, 1000, Skopje, North Macedonia D. Koceva No Ss Cyril and Methodius University from Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine-Skopje, Lazar Pop-Trajkov 5-7, 1000, Skopje, North Macedonia G. Stojković No Ss Cyril and Methodius University from Skopje, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Institute for Chemistry, Arhimedova 5, 1000, Skopje, North Macedonia A. Angeleska No Ss Cyril and Methodius University from Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine-Skopje, Lazar Pop-Trajkov 5-7, 1000, Skopje, North Macedonia E. Dimitrieska-Stojković edimitrieska@fvm.ukim.edu.mk 0000-0001-8315-5267 Yes Ss Cyril and Methodius University from Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine-Skopje, Lazar Pop-Trajkov 5-7, 1000, Skopje, North Macedonia