Author/Authors :
Yazdanpanah, Hassan School of Pharmacy - Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran - Food and Drug Deputy - Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran , Zarghi, Afshin School of Pharmacy - Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran , Shafaati, Ali Reza School of Pharmacy - Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran , Foroutan, Mohsen School of Pharmacy - Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran , Aboul-Fathi, Farshid Noor Research and Educational Institute, Tehran , Khoddam, Arash Noor Research and Educational Institute, Tehran , Nazari, Firoozeh School of Pharmacy - Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran - Student Research committee - School of Pharmacy - Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran
Abstract :
Zearalenone (ZEA) mycotoxin is a potent estrogenic metabolite. It is the primary toxin
causing infertility, abortion or other breeding problems. A HPLC method was validated for ZEA in foods using a monolithic column with sample clean-up on an immunoaffinity column. A certified reference material (CRM) from FAPAS (UK) was analyzed. A survey of ZEA was performed on the 72 samples of rice, bread, puffed corn snack and wheat flour collected from Tehran retail market. The average recovery and coefficient of variation in different foods ranged 92.7-107.1 and 4.9-13.8%, respectively. The amount of ZEA in corn CRM was in the acceptable range of FAPAS. The limit of quantification was 3 ng/g for rice, bread and wheat flour and 2.7 ng/g for puffed corn snack. The retention time of zearalenone was 2.6 min. All samples had contamination level lower than the maximum tolerated level of ZEA in foods in Iran. The mean intake of ZEA from all samples was much lower than the tolerable daily intake estimated by JECFA. This is the first survey on ZEA contamination in bread and rice in Iran as
well as the first study on exposure assessment of Tehran population to ZEA.
