Contribution of cereals and cows’ milk consumption to the exposure to mycotoxins: a study with Portuguese children

ABSTRACT

The ubiquitous occurrence of mycotoxins in the environment results in unavoidable and repeated human exposure to mixtures of mycotoxins, the main exposure being through the consumption of contaminated foods, such as cereals and milk. Considering the frequency of contamination of these foods with mycotoxins, this study aimed to evaluate the risk of exposure to aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in a Portuguese population under 17 years old through the consumption of these foods. To assess mycotoxin exposure, food contamination data was provided by the Official National Plan to Control Food and the food consumption information from the National Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity Survey of the Portuguese General Population (2015–2016); risk assessment calculations were performed through the Monte Carlo probabilistic method. In view of the results obtained for aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, and considering the legislation in force, the levels observed were below the maximum levels. However, there was a risk in deoxynivalenol exposure for children from 0 to 9 years old (average and high consumers), and for high consumers from 10 to 17 years old. Given the potential adverse effects of these mycotoxins, their co-existence in the same foods and being a priority issue defined by the European Food Safety Authority, tight control should be carried out, in addition to re-evaluation of the maximum levels of these mycotoxins.

KEYWORDS:

• Cereals
• milk
• mycotoxin’s contamination
• children exposure
• national food
• nutrition and physical activity survey
• risk assessment

Acknowledgments

We intend to thank all the Department of Food Risks and Laboratories from ASAE, the Portuguese Food and Economic Safety Authority.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.