Occurrence and Safety Evaluation of Ochratoxin A in Cereal-based Baby Foods Collected from Iranian Retail Market.

Contamination of agricultural commodities with ochratoxin A (OTA) is a worldwide concern in recent decades. Consumption of OTA-contaminated baby foods exerts health implications especially in children as the most vulnerable subpopulations. In the current study, for the first time in Iran, 64 baby foods (rice, wheat, and multigrain) samples from five different brands available in the Iranian market were analyzed to determine OTA level, using a HPLC with fluorescence detector. Overall, OTA was observed in 41% of analyzed samples with a mean and maximum level of 0.42 ± 0.27 and 1.1 μg/kg, respectively. OTA levels in five of 64 samples (7.8 %) were higher than the permissible limit recommended by European Commission (permissible limit: 0.5 μg/kg) and OTA levels in two of 64 samples (3.1%) were higher than the standard set by Iranian standard organization (1 μg/kg). The highest OTA contamination was observed in rice-based baby food cereals (1.1 μg/kg; 57% of the samples), followed by wheat-based (23%) and multigrain (20%) samples. OTA intake in infants (≥9 months old) was more than established provisional tolerable weekly intake by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) (100 and 120 ng OTA per kg of body weight, respectively). OTA content in baby food and cereals, as well as other raw foodstuff should be investigated comprehensively to reduce the exposure rate of young children to OTA.