Occurrence and risk assessment of population exposed to deoxynivalenol in foods derived from wheat flour in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most important of the trichothecenes in terms of amounts and occurrence in wheat. This compound was shown to be associated with a glomerulonephropathy involving an increase of immunoglobulin A in humans. This study assessed the occurrence of DON in wheat flour and the exposure of Brazilian teenagers, adults and elderly to this mycotoxin due to intake of wheat flour-based products. DON extraction in wheat flour was carried out by solid phase extraction and the quantification was performed by ultra-high proficiency liquid chromatography with diode-array detection. A total of 77.9% of all samples were positive for DON, with concentrations ranging from 73.50 to 2794.63 µg kg⁻¹. The intake was calculated for the average and 90th percentile of the contamination levels of DON in foods based-wheat for teenagers, adults and elderly in Brazil, and compared with the provisional maximum tolerable daily intakes (PMTDI). Females of all age groups were exposed to DON at higher levels when compared to males in regard of consumption of breads and pastas. Teenagers were the main consumers of foods derived from wheat flour, with maximum probable daily intakes of 1.28 and 1.20 µg kg⁻¹ b.w. day⁻¹ for females and males, respectively. This population is at an increased risk of exposure to DON due to consumption of wheat flour-based foods in Brazil.

KEYWORDS:

• Deoxynivalenol
• Fusarium graminearum
• mycotoxins
• occurrence
• risk assessment
• wheat-based products

Acknowledgments

This paper was part of the PhD thesis work that was presented by the first author and was funded by Decit/SCTIE/MS-CNPq-Fundação Araucária-SESA-PR (Grant # 41723.433.29107.1109-2013). Thanks to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES due to concession of scholarship to the first, second, third and fourth author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Decit/SCTIE/MS-CNPq-Fundação Araucária-SESA-PR [Grant # 41723.433.29107.-11092013].