Hazelnut contamination with aflatoxins is a major food safety concern for producing countries, particularly Türkiye, the world’s leading hazelnut producer. Mitigation of mold and aflatoxin contamination is therefore a critical issue in the hazelnut trade for ensuring safe human consumption. This study comprehensively evaluates the impact of key physical and thermal processing steps on aflatoxin levels in hazelnuts. Since commercially available hazelnuts typically exhibit low and heterogeneous contamination, both artificially inoculated (approximately 10 and 20 µg kg^-1) and naturally contaminated samples were used. Roasting, blanching, and mechanical or manual sorting were applied under pilot-scale and industrial-scale conditions, and aflatoxin levels were quantified after each processing step. Aflatoxins were found to be concentrated mainly in the hazelnut skin and rejected fractions. Sorting proved highly effective, and higher roasting temperatures led to a statistically significant reduction in aflatoxin levels, as supported by consistent stage-related differences (Friedman test, p < 0.05). Roasting reduced aflatoxin concentrations by more than 97 % in artificially inoculated samples, and overall contamination was reduced by approximately 98 % after the complete processing sequence. These results clearly demonstrate that combined physical and thermal treatments substantially and statistically mitigate aflatoxin contamination in hazelnuts.