Survey of aflatoxins and ochratoxin a contamination in food products imported in Italy

In this study the levels of aflatoxins (AF B1, B2, G1 and G2) and ochratoxin A (OTA) were monitored in several food products imported in Italy with a high contamination risk. A total of 345 samples were collected from the Maritime Authority of Salerno Customs Port during the period from January 2008 to December 2009 and analyzed by immunoaffinity chromatography as clean-up, high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection for quantification and tandem mass spectrometry for confirmation. The analytical methods were validated on different food matrices and meet the performance criteria set by EC Regulation No. 401/2006 for mycotoxin analysis. The results obtained in this survey showed that 7% of the total samples contained detectable levels of AFs and OTA, and 1.2% had AFs concentrations exceeding the maximum limits set by EU regulation. OTA was the most prevalent mycotoxin, with an incidence of 17.6% of samples analyzed for OTA. The highest detected levels were 23.70 μg kg−1 of OTA in a green coffee sample and 70.69 μg kg−1 of AFs in an apricot kernels sample. Among the food products analyzed, hazelnuts paste and dried vine fruits were the commodities mainly contaminated with AFs and OTA, respectively.