Mycotoxins in organic and conventional cereals and cereal products grown and marketed in Croatia

Abstract

In this study, the levels of aflatoxin B (AFB), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FUM) in unprocessed cereals (n = 189) and cereal-based products (n = 61) were determined using validated ELISA methods. All samples originated from either conventional or organic production corresponded to the 2015 harvest in Croatia. Based on the mean mycotoxin concentrations, the risk for the consumer to exceed the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for these toxins by the consumption of both types of cereals and cereal-based products was assessed. Mycotoxin contamination of organic cereals and organic cereal-based products was not significantly different (p > 0.05). Given that the exposure assessment resulted in a small fraction of the TDI (maximum: DON, 12% of TDI), the levels of the investigated mycotoxins in both types of cereals and cereal-based products from the 2015 harvest did not pose a human health hazard.

Toxicological and Medical Aspects of Aspergillus-Derived Mycotoxins Entering the Feed and Food Chain

“…This mycotoxin occurs naturally and is widespread around the world, but mainly in the Mediterranean Basin, including Italy, Spain, and Greece (Covarelli et al, 2012;Somma et al, 2012;Perrone et al, 2013;Arroyo-Manzanares et al, 2019), and furthermore, in several African countries like Cameroon, Senegal, Benin, and Nigeria (Rodrigues et al, 2011;Tang et al, 2019). OTA can also be considered as a potentially emerging mycotoxin in Central Europe due to the climate change (Tóth et al, 2013;Pleadin et al, 2017;Udovicki et al, 2018). The most common types of food bearing OTA are cereal grains, oil seeds and tree nuts, wine, wine grapes and dried fruits, spices, herbs and herbal teas, cocoa powder, and coffee beans.…”

Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Winter Rye Varieties Cultivated in Poland (2017–2019)

“…In an earlier study in Germany, Gottschalk et al [ 21 ] detected DON in 100% out of 61 analyzed rye samples, with mean and maximum concentrations of 28.0 µg/kg and 288 µg/kg, respectively. Pleadin et al [ 22 ] analyzed 16 rye samples in Croatia, and DON was found in six of the samples (38%) at a mean concentration of 50.0 µg/kg. In our study, the contamination rate of rye samples was similar to the results reported by Gottschalk et al [ 21 ] and much higher than the results presented by Błajet-Kosicka et al [ 17 ], Mankevičienė et al [ 18 ], Tutelyan et al [ 19 ], Remža et al [ 20 ], and Pleadin et al [ 22 ].…”

Deoxynivalenol in cereal-based baby food production process. A review

“…Usually the studies on mycotoxins incidence in commodities are not only focused on a group of cereals from a country or region but also on more than one mycotoxin, yet their cooccurrence was frequently proved (Bryła et al, 2016;De Boevre, Di Mavungu, Landschoot, et al, 2012;Pleadin et al, 2017;Vanheule et al, 2014). The present work was oriented on studying the occurrence of DON and its metabolites, over the last 25 years, in the cereal species which are mainly used in baby food industry.…”

“…Moreover, differences in DON occurrence and accumulation were observed between organic and conventional agricultural systems. Nevertheless, from the available literature, it results that DON accumulation is crop dependent too: in oats, maize and rye from organic agriculture DON concentration is higher compared to the conventional system but it is the opposite in the case of wheat and barley (Bernhoft, Clasen, Kristoffersen, & Torp, 2010;Pleadin et al, 2017). Table 1 were focused on more than one mycotoxin, however all of them found DON as the most prevalent product of fungal activity (in almost all the studies over various years DON positive samples were found in more than 50% of the total analysed cereal samples).…”