Distribution of deoxynivalenol in wheat, wheat flour, bran, and gluten, and variability associated with the test procedure.

Analytical data obtained on deoxynivalenol (DON) concentration in naturally contaminated wheat during processing in an industrial mill were statistically analyzed, and the distribution functions of DON concentration in lots of wheat, bran, wheat flour, and gluten were estimated. The analytical method had acceptable precision (HORRAT 0.25-0.32) for each test sample. The total variance combined sampling, sample preparation, and analytical variances were 0.188, 0.033, 0.42, and 0.0014 ppm2 for wheat, 1.93; flour, 0.99; bran, 4.68; and gluten, 0.29, respectively. The distribution function of DON contamination presented an asymmetric tail for high values of concentration in wheat grains and wheat flour; in bran it seemed to be bimodal with 2 separated peaks of different concentrations; in gluten the normal distribution function gave a reasonably good fit to empirical data. The function eta(c) = -In(-Inp), where p (c) is the cumulative distribution function was linear with c in the so-called extreme-value type I distribution and could be fitted by a cubic polynomial in c in the distributions determined for all the products. This variability and distributional information contributes to the design of better sampling plans in order to reduce the total variability and to estimate errors in the evaluation of DON concentration in lots of wheat and wheat products.