Analysis of some breakfast cereals on the French market for their contents of ochratoxin A, citrinin and fumonisin B1: development of a method for simultaneous extraction of ochratoxin A and citrinin

Crops may be contaminated by mycotoxins which can persist in the final products. Forty-five breakfast cereals were collected in French supermarkets. Ochratoxin A (OTA) and citrinin (CIT) were simultaneously extracted by a new method based on solvent partition validated in-house. The recoveries were over 80% for CIT and OTA. Fumonisin B1 (FB1) was analysed by an IUPAC method. The recoveries for FB1 ranged from 50% to 70%, depending on the matrix. The losses were located at the step of immunoaffinity clean-up. s detected in 69% of the samples; 20% of them were above the EU limit of 3 μg/kg. Twenty percent contained CIT (1.5–42 μg/kg). FBs were detected, not only in cornflakes, but also in products containing oats or rice, in the range 1–1110 μg/kg. Some samples were contaminated by all three mycotoxins.