Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by toxigenic fungi in crops worldwide. In (micro)organisms such as plants, fungi, bacteria, or animals they may be further metabolised and modified, but this is also true for food processing, which may lead to a wide range of masked mycotoxin forms. These often remain undetected by analytical methods and are the culprits for underestimates in risk assessments. Furthermore, once ingested, modified mycotoxins can convert back to their parent forms. This concern has raised the need for analytical methods that can detect and quantify modified mycotoxins as essential for accurate risk assessment. The promising answer is liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. New masked mycotoxin forms are now successfully detected by iontrap, time-of-flight, or high-resolution orbitrap mass spectrometers. However, the toxicological relevance of modified mycotoxins has not been fully clarified.

Cereals are still one of the most important food and feed sources, thus determining cereal’s safety, i.e., compliance with legislation, is extremely important. As systematic investigations of nowadays unavoidable secondary fungal metabolites and other common legally regulated contaminants occurrence in Croatian cereals are still lacking, this research aims to monitor the contamination levels of nation-wide crops by mycotoxins, pesticide residues, and heavy metals by employing UHPLC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS, and atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) validated analytical methods. The most common secondary fungal metabolites were found to be Fusarium mycotoxins, with DON being the most occurring present in 73.7% of the samples. At least one pesticide residue was found in 331.8% of the samples, and Hg and Cd were the most occurring heavy metals. A total of 8.5% of the samples was non-compliant to the European Union (EU) legislation for food regarding the found mycotoxins concentrations, 4.5% regarding pesticide residues and none regarding heavy metals. The unusual presence of certain pesticide residue and heavy metal indicates the importance of systematic control of the contaminant presence, in order to gather enough occurrence data for proper risk assessment that these contaminants represent for the consumer’s health.

A total of 209 samples of various cereal crops (maize, wheat, barley, rye and oats) grown in Croatian fields during 2016 and 2017 were collected to analyze and determine the occurrence and co-occurrence of EU regulated mycotoxins in cereals (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, DON, FB1, FB2, ZEA, T-2, HT-2 and OTA). The analysis, performed by a validated confirmatory LC-MS/MS method based on a dilute and shoot principle, highlighted Fusarium mycotoxins as the main contaminants, often co-occurring in samples from both years (50.0% in 2016 and 33.7% in 2017). DON was found to be the most frequent mycotoxin, present in 72.5% of the 2016 samples and 32.6% of the 2017 samples, while maize proved to be the most contaminated cereal type of both years with FUM as the most abundant mycotoxins, with an average concentration of 1180 µg/kg. Moderate temperatures with periods of high humidity favored the accumulation of DON in wheat samples instead of other Fusarium mycotoxins, while similar conditions favored maize contamination with FUM. A total of 8.3% of all the 2016 harvest samples and 7.9% of the 2017 harvest samples were assessed as non-compliant, containing mycotoxins in concentrations higher than the levels set by the EU legislation for food.

The objective of this study was to compare the psysico-chemical composition and fatty acid (FFA) profile of traditional dry cured bacon Slavonska slanina, produced from the authentic Black Slavonian Pig (BP) and modern pigs (MP), using traditional homemade principles. The samples of Slavonska slanina produced from BP had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher fat content (78.32%) than the samples produced from MP (46.47%), while the samples produced from MP showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) protein and moisture content. The samples produced from BP also showed lower aw and salt content but higher pH. Determination of fatty acid composition was performed at the end of the production process. The composition of fatty acids with respect to the groups of saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids was determined, as well as the ratios n-6/n-3 and PUFA/SFA. The results of fatty acid composition determination of Slavonska slanina produced from BP and MP show that oleic acid (C18: 1n9) is the most dominant fatty acid from the MUFA group (47.02 and 46.25%), the most common SFA acid was palmitic acid (C16: 0) (23.44 and 24.96%), and PUFA linoleic acid (C18: 2n-6c) (10.76 and 9.74%). The genotype had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on the SFA and USFA composition of Slavonska slanina. The ratios PUFA/SFA (0.34–0.28) and n-6/n-3 (31.84–27.34) for samples of Slavonska slanina produced from BP and MP are in concordance with previously published data for different dry cured meat products, and do not comply with the nutritionally recommended values of international health organizations (PUFA/SFA > 0.4 and n-6/n-3 < 4).