Determination of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in retail cereal products from Turkey by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

In this study, a total of 110 retail cereal products from Turkey were analysed for aflatoxins (AFB(1), AFB(2), AFG(1) and AFG(2)) and ochratoxin A (OTA). The mycotoxins were determined by liquid-solid extraction, immunoaffinity column clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD). Recoveries (83.9-92%) and both intra-day and inter-day repeatability (RSD < 12) of the method, meet the performance criteria set by EC regulation No. 401/2006 for the determination of the levels of mycotoxins in foodstuffs. OTA was the most prevalent toxin, with an incidence of 43.6% (range = 0.066-1.125 mu g kg(-1)), but at levels below the European legislation limit of 3 mu g kg(-1). Aflatoxins were found in 27 of 110 analysed samples: twenty-seven samples with AFB(1), fourteen samples with AFB(2), seven samples with AFG(1) and two samples with AFG(2). The ranges for positive samples were 0.052 -0.233 mu g AFB(1) kg(-1), 0.022-0.044 mu g AFB(2) kg(-1), 0.053-0.149 mu g AFG(1) kg(-1) and 0.033-0.037 mu g AFG(2) kg(-1). The co-occurrence of AFB(1) and OTA was observed in 14.6% of the samples. This is the first study concerning the simultaneous occurrence of aflatoxins and OTA in retail cereal products from Turkey. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.