Five-year survey of ochratoxin A in processed sultanas from Turkey

Abstract

The results of surveillance for ochratoxin A (OTA) in 1885 samples of sultanas taken during five crop years between 1999 and 2003 are reported. The analytical method was based on extraction with methanol + sodium bicarbonate and clean-up by immunoaffinity column chromatography followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. The limit of detection for OTA was 0.3 microg kg(-1). The results show that 9.3% of the samples contained no detectable levels of OTA, whereas 0.6% had concentrations exceeding 10 microg kg(-1); the remaining 90.3% had levels within the range 0.3-10 microg kg(-1). The overall mean OTA concentration in the total number of 1885 samples taken was 1.36 +/- 2.91 microg kg(-1); the overall median was calculated as 0.90 microg kg(-1).

Ochratoxin A in dried grapes in Hamadan province, Iran

“…As shown in Table 4, several studies reported the OTA contamination in different kinds of dried fruits (Stefanaki et al 2003;Meyvaci et al 2005;Aksoy et al 2007;Karbancıoglu-Güler and Heperkan 2008;Kuang et al 2012;Akdeniz et al 2013;Rahimi and Shakerian 2013;Kollia et al 2014;Zhang et al 2014). A previous Iranian survey by Rahimi and Shakerian (2013) reported 17 (44.7%) samples of 38 raisins samples to be contaminated with OTA in the range 2.9 -18.2 µg/kg, which is similar with our results.…”

Survey of aflatoxins and ochratoxin a contamination in food products imported in Italy

“…About Turkey, Meyvaci et al (Meyvaci et al, 2005) covered three production years for unprocessed sultanas, finding a high incidence of OTA (68%) with an overall mean concentration of 3.4 mg kg À1 . Aksoy et al (Aksoy, Eltem, Meyvaci, Altindisli & Karabat, 2007) also reported OTA presence in 91% of processed Turkish sultanas taken during five crop years (overall mean concentration 1.4 mg kg À1 ). The number of alert notifications and rejection of imported Turkish dried fruits due to OTA contamination, especially in sultanas, has increased since 2003 (Bircan, 2009).…”

Mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits: A review

“…Surveys for OTA have been carried out in many countries, including Argentina, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK (Varga and Kozakiewicz 2006). Some maximum levels of OTA reported in the literature are 35 mg g À1 in raisins analysed in Sweden (Mö ller and Nyberg 2003), 250 mg kg À1 in raisins in Egypt (Youssef et al 2000), 26 mg kg À1 in sultanas analysed in Canada (Lombaert et al 2004), 54 mg kg À1 in unprocessed sultanas in Turkey (Meyvaci et al 2005), 100 mg kg À1 in processed Turkish sultanas (Aksoy et al 2007), and 54 mg kg À1 in currants analysed in the UK (MacDonald et al 1999). Taking some of the data from four of these surveys as examples: Lombaert et al (2004) found 79% of 85 samples of raisins and 59% of 66 samples of sultanas contained OTA above 0.1 mg kg À1 with overall mean levels in all samples of 1.8 mg kg À1 for both raisins and sultanas; Meyvaci et al (2005) covered three production years for unprocessed sultanas in the Aegean region of Turkey, finding considerable variations in incidence and median levels with an overall mean level 3.4 mg kg À1 ; while Aksoy et al (2007) reported varying incidences over five years in processed Turkish sultanas (with a overall mean concentration ¼ 1.4 mg kg À1 ).…”