Source: UNIV OF IDAHO submitted to NRP
RISK ASESSMENT AND INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR THE EMERGING FOOD SAFETY THREAT OF OCHRATOXIN IN THE UNITED STATES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0233577
Grant No.
2011-67005-20676
Cumulative Award Amt.
$1,117,685.19
Proposal No.
2012-04473
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Dec 15, 2012
Project End Date
Feb 14, 2018
Grant Year
2013
Program Code
[A4141]- Food Safety: Addressing Critical and Emerging Food Safety Issues
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF IDAHO
875 PERIMETER DRIVE
MOSCOW,ID 83844-9803
Performing Department
School of Food Science
Non Technical Summary
Several toxigenic fungi in the genus Aspergillus and Penicillium are known to contaminate agricultural crops and produce ochratoxin A (OTA), a possible human carcinogen. While OTA has been associated with nephropathic diseases in animals and humans, its nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, immunosuppressive, mutagenic, and teratogenic potency has been shown in animal studies. Due to the diverse growth characteristics, the toxigenic fungi and OTA have been found in exceptionally wide variety of agricultural commodities worldwide including cereal grains, nuts, dried fruits, spices, meat, milk, and many processed foods made from these commodities including wine, beer, infant formula and baby foods. Most studies on OTA in food have been conducted in European countries where OTA levels are regulated. Currently, no regulation for OTA in foods has been set in the U.S. and there is an urgent need for up-to-date information on the incidence and levels of OTA as the international trade of agricultural products has been increased dramatically to meet the changing consumer demand. We propose this project to provide data on the emerging OTA issues by comprehensive national survey followed by health risk assessment of foodborne OTA for general public and high-risk population. We will also investigate effective strategies to reduce the exposure of public from OTA.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
50%
Developmental
40%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7121599115030%
7125010115070%
Knowledge Area
712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
1599 - Grain crops, general/other; 5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
1150 - Toxicology;
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of our research is to address the emerging threat of OTA contamination in the food supply. The goal of this study is to assess the risks of foodborne OTA in the U.S., and to provide effective technical and economic measures to reduce the risk of exposure to OTA in foods. We propose to achieve the goals by pursuing four specific objectives below. 1) Optimization and verification of methods for detecting and quantifying OTA in foods to obtain reliable data in varying types of food matrices. 2) Determination of OTA concentrations and the presence of toxigenic fungi in foods with a comprehensive national survey utilizing analytical methods established in Objective 1 and a mycological analysis. 3) Risk assessment of foodborne OTA exposure to the general public and high-risk populations including infants. 4) Development of strategies to reduce OTA exposure from the food supply through examination of current postharvest practices. We expect to improve existing analytical methods to detect OTA and generate comprehensive data sets on the occurrence of OTA and its producers in the U.S. food supply. This information will lead to an assessment of risks associated with this emerging food safety threat. The expected outcome of the risk assessment is that certain subpopulations of pregnant women in the U.S. consume levels of OTA that may cause teratogenic effects in children. It is expected that levels of exposure depend on diet and geography, as determined by the sampling portion of our research. This study will also develop practical strategies to reduce exposure from OTA in food supply in the U.S.
Project Methods
As the physical and chemical characteristics of food matrices vary significantly, e.g. from cereal grains to meats, detection methods for OTA in each commodity will be optimized and verified in multiple laboratories (Objective 1). A nationwide survey will be conducted with collaborators to include all known and potential commodities of domestic and foreign origin that may be contaminated with OTA (Objective 2). For the survey, each collaborating laboratory will determine occurrence of OTA in the samples with their expertise and experience in working with the commodities. The commodities to be analyzed include wheat, barley, coffee, wine, beer, milk, infant formula, dried fruits, and nuts. Based on the data collected from this survey, a multi-factorial exposure and risk assessment will be carried out for the general public and for high-risk populations, i.e. pregnant women and infants (Objective 3). Then, current food supply chain and production technologies will be examined to develop strategies to reduce or eliminate exposure of human from OTA contamination in foods. Risk management based on HACCP concept and investigation on current food processing technologies will also be included during the development of strategies (Objective 4).

Progress 12/15/12 to 02/28/18

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated via papers published in journals and presentations at the professional meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The goals and objectives of this study we proposed were accomplished as we conducted risk assessment of foodborne OTA in the U.S. following comprehensive national survey and provided technical and economic measures to reduce the risk of exposure to OTA in foods with 20 papers (19 published and 1 in preparation). In conclusion, dietary OTA exposures in the U.S. were well below limits regarded as being of possible health risk with the exception of infants who consumed large amounts of oat-based cereals. Together with surveillance program, adopting legal limits for OTA, particularly in foods destined for infants and young children, may provide an added safeguard to public health. Significant accomplishments made by the goals and objectives are summarized below. Objective 1: This objective was completed with five publications. In particular, a LC-MS/MS method using diluted stable isotope was developed to detect OTA in liquid samples with recoveries ranging 95-104% of OTA in wines and beers. Another LC-MS/MS method was developed specifically for infant cereals with 79-123% recovery, 0.1 ng/g limit of detection (LOD), and 0.5 ng/g limit of quantification (LOQ). While we optimized and verified analytical methods for all matrices, an HPLC method using stir bar sorptive extraction was developed for the detection of OTA in beer for the first time eliminating purification steps and need of expensive immunoaffinity columns with >83% recovery, 0.64 ng/mL LOD, and 2.13 ng/mL LOQ. We also addressed a common problem associated with ELISA, i.e. cross-reaction with phenolic compounds. Hence, we developed a method to incorporate polyvinylpolypyrrolidone during extraction to remove phenolic compounds. This is a significant finding as commercially available ELISA test kits can be used without compromising reliability. Objective 2: All known commodities known to be contaminated with OTA were included in the survey - dried fruits, nuts, spices, wheat, barley, breakfast cereals, infant formula, baby foods, cereal based products, coffee, cocoa, meat, wine, beer, milk, infant formula, and baby foods. We completed this objective by analyzing a total of 3,902 samples to provide data for risk assessment of OTA with eight publications. Among all sample groups, oats and oat-based products showed highest level of contamination particularly in infant cereals as presented below. Among a total of 489 samples of corn-, rice-, wheat-, and oat-based breakfast cereals collected, 205 samples (42%) were contaminated with OTA in the range from 0.10 to 9.30 ng/g. The levels OTA were mostly below of the European Commission Regulation (3 ng/g) except in 16 samples of oat-based cereals. The incidence of OTA was highest in oat-based breakfast cereals (70%, 142/203), followed by wheat-based (32%, 38/117), corn-based (15%, 15/103), and rice-based breakfast cereals (15%, 10/66). We paid particular attention to this sample group by collecting and analyzing 98 powdered infant formula (milk- and soy-based) samples and 155 infant cereal (barley-, rice-, oat-, wheat-, and mixed grain-based) products. Although OTA was not detected in infant formula samples, 30%(47/155) of infant cereals were contaminated with OTA in the range of 0.6 to 22.1 ng/g. It should be noted that all of the positive samples were above the maximum level set by the European Commission (0.5 ng/g) for OTA in baby foods. Objective 3: We found that in almost all circumstances, American dietary OTA exposures were well below limits regarded as being of possible health risk. The exception was for infants who consumed large amounts of oat-based cereals. We also took a novel approach to estimate the impact of OTA on diabetes as one of the most common complications of diabetes is kidney damage (also known as nephropathy). A pilot test with a rodent model C57BLKS/J (or db/db, diabetic mutant mice) showed that OTA exposure may aggravate diabetes based on the increased glycated hemoglobin (A1C) and ketone levels when OTA was administered at varying doses of 0.5, 1, and 3 mg/kg bw for up to 16 weeks. Additional data collected supporting this finding include: (i) decreased weight of major organs particularly the liver, kidney, and testis; (ii) decreased fasting glucose, albumin, alanine transaminase (ALT), and cholesterol levels; and (iii) increased calcium and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Objective 4: Although OTA contamination can occur prior to harvest, it is largely considered a storage issue that can be controlled through the implementation of proper storage practices. On the basis of the incidence and concentration of OTA, oats and oat-based products need greater attention in surveillance programs to reduce health risks in consumers particularly infants and young children. Nonetheless, in considering widespread contamination of OTA in cereal grains, developing food processing methods that can reduce OTA in raw materials may be a plausible approach. In an effort to examine current postharvest practices, the effect of food processing on OTA was investigated. The results showed that the rate and extent of OTA reduction were dependent on pH, processing time, and temperature. After processing under an alkaline condition (pH 10) at 100°C for 60 min, about 50% of the OTA was lost, while no significant reduction was observed under neutral and acidic conditions. This is an important information for food industry when developing or modifying unit operations to ensure safety of the products made with ingredients potentially contaminated with OTA. As there is no regulatory standard for OTA in the U.S., we identified setting maximum limits as a potential strategy to promote public health. The application of regulations may cause economic loss to food producers, which should be considered alongside potential health benefits from enacting such regulations. If the proposed OTA MLs are enforced, estimated annual losses to Canadian food producers could exceed 260 million Canadian dollars (CD), based on proportion of products expected to have OTA levels exceeding the MLs. Wheat and oat producers would experience the greatest proportion of economic loss. The U.S. would experience an estimated annual loss of over 17 million CD; primarily in the infant food, breakfast cereal and raisin industries. While the countervailing health benefits of such OTA standards are unclear, these potential health and economic implications should be considered by policymakers when setting regulatory standards for food safety.

Publications


    Progress 12/15/15 to 12/14/16

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Scientific community. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two full-time graduate students were trained to analyze OTA in food products and assess the risks associated with the toxin. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presented at the professional meeting and published original resesarch and review papers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are planning to development of strategies to reduce OTA exposure from the food supply (Objective 4) during the remaining project period.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? In this past year, we have completed our exposure assessment and risk assessment of dietary ochratoxin A (OTA) exposure in the United States population. These assessments werebased on food and beverage items purchased from grocery stores all around the US, and analyzed in different laboratories within our research team. For dietary intake, we used the NHANES database to find average and high-end consumption rates for multiple age groups (i.e., 0-1 years, 1-5 years, 5-17 years, 18+ years) of each of the different foodstuffs that could be contaminated with OTA. From these, we estimated OTA exposure for each age group based on average body mass and intake of the foodstuffs in question, and OTA exposures found in each foodstuff from our analyses. We compared these exposures to maximum tolerable limits set by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the Health Canada proposed Negligible Cancer Risk Intake (NCRI). We found that in almost all circumstances, American dietary OTA exposures were well below limits regarded as being of possible health risk. The exception was for infants who consumed large amounts of oat-based cereals. However, estimated lifetime OTA exposures in the US were found to have negligible health risk.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Dahal, S., H.J. Lee, K. Gu, and D. Ryu. 2016. Heat stability of ochratoxin A in an aqueous buffered model system. J. Food Prot. 79(10):1748-1752.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Robinson, A.L., H.J. Lee, and D. Ryu. 2017. Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone reduces cross-reactions between antibodies and phenolic compounds in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of ochratoxin A. Food Chem. 214:47-52
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Chen, C. and F. Wu. 2016. The Need to Revisit Ochratoxin A Risk in Light of Global Diabetes, Obesity, and Chronic Kidney Disease Prevalence. Bulletin of the World Health Organization
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Al-Taher, F., J. Cappozzo, J. Zweigenbaum, H.J. Lee, L.S. Jackson, and D. Ryu. 2017. Detection and quantitation of mycotoxins in infant cereals in the U.S. market by LC-MS/MS using a stable isotope dilution assay. Food Control 72:27-35
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lee, H.J. and D. Ryu*. 2017. Worldwide occurrence of mycotoxins in cereals and cereal-derived food products: Public health perspectives of their co-occurrence. J. Agric. Food Chem. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b04847
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Cappozzo, J., L.S. Jackson, H.J. Lee, W. Zhou, F. Al-Taher, J. Zweigenbaum, and D. Ryu*. 2017. Occurrence of ochratoxin A in baby foods in United States. J. Food Prot. 80:251-256.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mitchell, N.J., C. Chen, J. Palumbo, A. Bianchini, J. Stratton, J. Cappozzo, D. Ryu, and F. Wu. 2017. A risk assessment of dietary ochratoxin A in the United States. Food Chem Toxicol 100:265-273.


    Progress 12/15/14 to 12/14/15

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two full-time and one half-time graduate students were trained to analyze OTA in various types of samples to finish the national survey. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We published original research papers as well as a review paper in peer-reviewed scientific journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are planning to complete Objective 3 in 6 months followed by the development of strategies to reduce OTA exposure from the food supply (Objective 4).

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 2, determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) concentrations in foods with a comprehensive national survey, was completed. The samples collected for the survey were shipped to the designated laboratories and were analyzed for the presence/level of OTA. The concentrations of OTA in wine, beer, milk, infant formula, infant cereal were determined by LC-MS/MS method while all the rest of the samples including nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts), dried fruits (raisins, figs, dates, prunes), coffee, cocoa, meats, and breakfast cereals were analyzed by HPLC. For Objective 3, we conducted initial exposure assessment work based on the data obtained from the two-year national survey (Objective 2) as summarized below while the manuscript for publication is in progress. Commodities from grocery stores across the US were gathered in two consecutive years, and sampled for OTA; these commodities include dried fruits, nuts, breakfast cereal, infant formula, infant cereal, wine and bear, milk, meat, coffee, and cocoa. Although most of the samples were found to have non-detectable OTA, there were detectable OTA levels in several samples of dried fruits, breakfast cereals, infant cereals, and cocoa. Based on a nationwide survey of American diets grouped by age, we estimated OTA exposure across several age groups, for the entire US population as well as the groups who answered "yes" (or had their parents answer "yes" on their behalf) to having consumed the individual commodities over the last 24 hours. We found that, on average, none of the Americans in any of the age categories consumed OTA levels above the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) set by the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization: 100 ng OTA/kg bw/week. However, among infants and children who were heavier consumers of particular commodities, and had consumed the commodity in the last 24 hours, the upper ranges were above the JECFA PTWI. Moreover, one pistachio sample that had exceedingly high OTA levels pushed the upper bound of OTA exposure among frequent pistachio consumers above the JECFA PTWI. Hence, in the US, ochratoxin exposure is highest in infants and young children who consume large amounts of infant cereal, raisins, and oatmeal.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: 6. Kuruc, J.A., J. Hegstad, H.J. Lee, K. Simons, D. Ryu, and C. Wolf-Hall. 2015. Infestation and quantification of ochratoxigenic fungi in barley and wheat naturally contaminated with ochratoxin A. J. Food Prot. 78(7):1350-1356.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, X., Y. Xu, D.B. Wan, Y.H. Xiong, Z.Y. He, X.X. Wang, S.J. Gee, D. Ryu, and B.D. Hammock. 2015. Development of a nanobody-alkaline phosphatase fusion protein and its application in a highly sensitive direct competitive fluorescence enzyme immunoassay for detection of ochratoxin A in cereal. Anal. Chem. 87(2):1387-94. doi: 10.1021/ac504305z.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bui-Klimke, T.R. and F. Wu. 2015. Ochratoxin A and human health risk: A review of the evidence. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 55:1860-1869.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Robinson, A.L., H.J. Lee, and D. Ryu. 2015. Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone reduces cross-reactions between antibodies and phenolic compounds in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of ochratoxin A. Food Chem.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Lee, H.J. and D. Ryu. 2015. Significance of ochratoxin A in breakfast cereals from the United States. J. Agric. Food Chem. doi: 10.1021/jf505674v.


    Progress 12/15/13 to 12/14/14

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Two full-time and one half-time graduate students were trained to analyze OTA in various types of samples to finish the national survey. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Publication of journal articles. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Research team is compiling all the data to carry out Objective 3, risk assessment. The entire risk assessment will be the main activity for the next 12 months. Based on the result of risk assessment, strategies to reduce OTA contamination will be developed (Objective 4).

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? For Objective 2, determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) concentrations in foods with a comprehensive national survey, a statistical sampling plan was developed and a total of about 1,500 samples were collected from seven metropolitan areas of Chicago, Dallas, East Lansing, Fargo/Minneapolis, Moscow, San Francisco, and Lincoln. The samples collected for the second year survey were shipped to the designated laboratories and were analyzed for the presence/level of OTA. A LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated to detect OTA in wine, beer, milk, infant formula, infant cereal. HPLC based methods for other commodities including nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts), dried fruits (raisins, figs, dates, prunes), coffee, cocoa, meats, and breakfast cereals. In total of 363 breakfast cereals samples of processed products containing corn, oat, wheat, and rice collected from seven cities in the U.S., 144 samples (40%) were contaminated with OTA in the range of 0.10 and 9.30 ng/g. Among the OTA contaminated samples, 42% were labeled as organic and 58% were conventional with mean concentrations of 0.64 and 0.57 g/g, respectively. There were six contaminated samples, all from oat based products, exceeding the maximum limits for OTA by European Commission Regulation (3 ng/g) in cereal based products. The incidence of OTA in dried fruits and nuts (54 dates, 52 figs, 51 prunes, 56 almonds, 48 pistachios, 56 walnuts) was low in the range of 0 ? 6%, except from in raisin samples which OTA was detected in 44% in total of 64 samples ranging 0.28 ? 7.5 ng/g. Among detected dried fruit and nut samples, no sample contained OTA levels above 10 ng/g (EU regulatory limit). OTA was not detected in 57 infant formula (29 milk and 28 soy based) samples, in 48 milk samples, in 95 beer samples, in 202 wine (107 red and 95 white) samples. With regard to infant cereal samples including 1 barley, 34 rice, 31 oat, 6 wheat based, and 16 mixed, 61% of oat based infant cereals, 37% mixed infant cereals, and 33% wheat based infant cereals were contaminated with OTA in the range of 0.13 ? 4.42 ng/g, except barley and rice based infant cereal which did not detected OTA in any of the samples.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, K.T.N. and D. Ryu. 2014. Development of a stir bar sorptive extraction method for analysis of ochratoxin A in beer. J. AOAC Int. 97(4):1092-1096.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Lee, H.J., A.D. Meldrum, N. Rivera, and D. Ryu. 2014. Cross-reactivity of antibodies with phenolic compounds in pistachios during quantification of ochratoxin A by commercial ELISA kits. J. Food Prot. 77(10):1754-1759.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, K.T.N. and D. Ryu. 2014. Ultrasonic extraction with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of ochratoxin A in processed cereal products. J. AOAC Int. 97(5):1384-1386.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bui-Klimke TR, Wu F. 2014. Evaluating Weight of Evidence in the Mystery of Balkan Endemic Nephropathy. Risk Analysis 34:1688-705.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bui-Klimke TR, Wu F. 2014. Ochratoxin A and human health risk: A review of the evidence. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 2014 May 29, [Epub ahead of print]. DOI:10.1080/10408398.2012.724480.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Kuruc, J., P. Schwarz, C. Wolf-Hall. 2014. Ochratoxin A in Stored United States Barley and Wheat. Journal of Food Protection. Accpeted.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, K.T.N. and D. Ryu. 2014. Concentration of ochratoxin A in breakfast cereals and snacks consumed in the United States. Food Control 40:140-144.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wu F, Bui-Klimke TR, Shields KN. 2014. Potential Economic and Health Impacts of Ochratoxin A Standards. World Mycotoxin Journal 7:387-98.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: JD Palumbo, TL O'Keeffe, YS Ho and CJ Santillan. Occurrence of ochratoxin A contamination and detection of ochratoxigenic Aspergillus species in retail samples of dried fruits and nuts. Journal of Food Protection.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Kuruc JA, Manthey F, Simsek S, Wolf-Hall C. 2014. Survey of ochratoxin A in freshly harvested durum and hard red spring wheat in the United States, 2011 and 2012. J Food Prot. 77(6):1005-1009.


    Progress 12/15/12 to 12/14/13

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Felicia Wu (Co-PD) started her new position at Michigan State University in Fall 2013. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? PD (Ryu) and Co-PD (Palumbo) presented their findings at the Gordon Research Conference on Mycotoxins & Phycotoxins in 2013. The results from the works accomplished were also published in peer reviewed journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Complete the second year national survey of ochratoxin A in foods.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? The objective 1, optimization and verification of methods for detecting and quantifying ochratoxin A (OTA) in foods, was completed and resulted three publications. One more manuscript on method development is in preparation. In brief, a LC-MS/MS method using diluted stable isotope was developed to detect OTA in liquid samples such as wines and beers (reported previously). Another LC-MS/MS method was developed to shorten the time of analysis by extracting samples with ultrasonication and eliminating purification steps. As a continued effort to improve analytical methods, an HPLC method using stir bar sorptive extraction was developed for the detection of OTA in beer. This method also eliminates purification steps and need of expensive immunoaffinity columns used for the most types of sample preparation in chromatography, i.e. HPLC and LC-MS/MS. Using a stir bar sorptive extraction method in detection of OTA was reported for the first time. As a part of the first year survey, breakfast cereals and snacks samples of processed products containing corn, oat, wheat, and rice were collected. From a total of 114 samples analyzed, 57 (50%) were contaminated with OTA in the range of 0.12 and 7.43 ng/g. Among the OTA contaminated samples, 53% were labeled as organic and 47% were conventional with mean concentrations of 1.21 and 2.00 g/g, respectively. There were ten contaminated samples, all from oat based products, exceeding the maximum limits for OTA by European Commission Regulation (3 ng/g) in cereal based products. Objective 2 is in progress as the second year national survey is being conducted.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, K.T.N. and D. Ryu. 2014. Occurrence of ochratoxin A in breakfast cereals and snacks consumed in the United States. Food Control 40:140-144.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, K.T.N. and D. Ryu. 2014. Development of a stir bar sorptive extraction method for analysis of ochratoxin A in beer. J. AOAC Int. [In press]
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, K.T.N. and D. Ryu. 2014. Ultrasonic extraction with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of ochratoxin A in processed cereal products. J. AOAC Int. [In press]
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wu, F, J.D. Groopman, and J.J. Pestka. 2014. Public Health Impacts of Foodborne Mycotoxins. Annual Reviews of Food Science and Technology, doi:10.1146/annurev-food-030713, [Epub ahead of print].
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bui-Klimke, T.R. and F. Wu. 2014. Ochratoxin A and human health risk: A review of the evidence. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition [In press].
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Ryu, D., L. S. Jackson, J. C. Cappozzo, J. D. Palumbo, A. Bianchini, J. E. Stratton, C. Wolf-Hall, and F. Wu. Occurrence of ochratoxin A in foods in the United States. Gordon Research Conference on Mycotoxins & Phycotoxins, Easton, MA, June 16-21, 2013.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Palumbo, J.D., T.L. OKeeffe, C.J., and Santillan. Survey of ochratoxin A contamination and detection of ochratoxigenic Aspergilli in dried fruits and nuts. Gordon Research Conference on Mycotoxins & Phycotoxins, Easton, MA, June 16-21, 2013.