[Сontamination of baby foods with ochratoxin A].

Mycotoxin ochratoxin A (OTA) is a widespread contaminant of raw cereal grains with nephrotoxic activity. Сereal-based baby foods (BF) are an important component of the infant diet. In Russia, the presence of OTA in grainbased BF is not allowed (<0.5 ng/kg), in the EU maximum limit of toxin in BF is 0.5 ng/kg. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) set for OTA a provisional tolerable weekly intake of 100 ng/kg bw; the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) – 120 ng/kg bw. The purpose of this study was to investigate the OTA content in BF (infant cereals and canned food) and assess the relevant risk to the health of children first year of life. The analysis of OTA was performed by immunoaffinity column clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for OTA were 0.10 and 0.50 ng/kg, respectively. The content of OTA in BF was represented as maximum (Max), mean (M), median (Мe) and 90 percentile (90%) of all samples. The 554 BF samples based on corn, rice, buckwheat, millet, wheat, oats, barley, and mixtures of cereals were studied. OTA was detected in 32 samples of BF: in 30 of the 312 samples of infant cereals (Max – 4.95 ng/kg; M – 0.09 ng/kg, Me and 90% – 0 ng/kg) and in 2 of the 242 samples of canned food (0.34 and 0.37 ng/kg). 20 samples of BF were contaminated with OTA above the maximum limit (≥0.50 ng/kg). BF, exhibited the highest incidence of OTA, were buckwheat-based (13 of 41 samples, Max – 2.52 ng/kg, M – 0.36 ng/kg, Me – 0 ng/kg, 90% – 1.57 ng/kg) and mixed-grain (12 of 115 samples, Max – 4.95 ng/kg, M – 0.10 ng/kg, Me – 0 ng/kg, 90% – 0.14 ng/kg) infant cereals. OTA was also detected in 2 of 40 samples of oat-based infant cereals (0.19 and 0.60 ng/kg), in 2 of 72 samples of rice-based infant cereals (0.18 and 0.48 ng/kg) and in 1 of 37 samples of wheat-based infant cereals (0.13 ng/kg). None of the 4 samples of corn-based and of the 3 samples of millet-based infant cereals contained OTA. Calculations showed that for infants the daily ochratoxin A dietary intake did not exceed 6.8 ng/kg bw. This value of OTA intake is below the levels, proposed as tolerable intake. Thus, one can conclude that cereal-based BF (infant cereals and canned food) are moderately contaminated with OTA and there is not a significant toxicological risk to the health of children of first year of life. However, identification of BF samples containing OTA above the maximum limit, demonstrates the need for thorough monitoring of the quality of the products from the manufacturers and regulatory authorities.