Aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in flour: a survey of the Serbian retail market.

Abstract

This report presents data on the occurrence of aflatoxins (AF) and ochratoxin A in different types of flour marketed in Serbia. A total of 114 samples of wheat, buckwheat, rye, oat, barley, rice, millet and corn flour were collected in the period 2012-2016 and analysed using high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Among flours other than corn, AFB1 was quantified only in rice, while ochratoxin A (OTA) was found in 29% of the samples. In corn flours the percentage of positive samples varied greatly over the years: AFB1 7.1-80.0%, OTA 30.0-40.6%, with a co-occurrence of 7.1-34.4%. Overall 5.2% of flours other than corn and 10.7% of corn flours exceeded the maximum levels (MLs) for AFB1 and/or OTA. The highest recorded levels were 8.80 μg kg-1 of AFB1 (corn) and 23.04 μg kg-1 of OTA (rye). Overall mean contamination levels of corn flours were 0.53 μg kg-1 of AFB1 and 0.46 μg kg-1 of OTA.