Determination of Ochratoxin A (OTA), Ochratoxin B (OTB), T-2, and HT-2 Toxins in Wheat Grains, Wheat Flour, and Bread in Lebanon by LC-MS/MS

• Published in: Toxins 2019-08, Vol.11 (8), p.471
• Main Authors: Elaridi, Jomana, Yamani, Osama, Al Matari, Amira, Dakroub, Saada, Attieh, Zouhair
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Bakeries; Bread; Bread - analysis; Cereals; Chromatography; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Contamination; Flour; Flour - analysis; Food contamination & poisoning; Food Contamination - analysis; Food products; Fungi; Grain; HT-2 toxin; Humidity; Lebanon; Mass spectrometry; Mycotoxins; Mycotoxins - analysis; Ochratoxin A; ochratoxin B; Public health; Scientific imaging; Supermarkets; T-2 toxin; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods; Toxins; Triticum - chemistry; Wheat
• ISSN: 2072-6651; 2072-6651
• DOI: 10.3390/toxins11080471

Cereals are prone to fungal infection during growth, harvesting, transportation, and/or storage. As a result, cereals such as wheat grains and wheat-derived products may be contaminated with mycotoxins leading to acute and chronic health exposure. The current study investigated the presence of the mycotoxins: ochratoxin A (OTA), ochratoxin B (OTB), T-2, and HT-2 toxins in samples of wheat grains ( = 50), wheat flour ( = 50), and bread ( = 37) from the main mills in Lebanon using LC-MS/MS. Accuracy ranged from 98-100%, recoveries from 93-105%, and intraday and interday precision were 5-7% and 9-12%, respectively. The tested wheat grains, wheat flour, and bread samples did not contain detectable levels of T-2 and HT-2 toxins and OTB. Four wheat flour samples (8% of flour samples) showed positive OTA levels ranging from 0.6-3.4 μg·kg with an arithmetic mean of 1.9 ± 0.2 μg·kg . Only one sample contained an OTA concentration greater than the limit set by the European Union (3 μg·kg ) for wheat-derived products. This study suggests that mycotoxin contamination of wheat grains, wheat flour, and bread in Lebanon is currently not a serious public health concern. However, surveillance strategies and monitoring programs must be routinely implemented to ensure minimal mycotoxin contamination of wheat-based products.