Ochratoxin A in red pepper flakes commercialised in Turkey

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of Ochratoxin A (OTA) in red pepper flakes commercialised in Turkey. A total of 75 samples were collected from different supermarkets and traditional bazaars in Istanbul during 2012–2013. OTA analysis was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography equipped with fluorescence detection after immunoaffinity column clean-up. The method was linear in the range 0.05–40 μg kg⁻¹ (r² = 0.9997). Twenty-seven out of 31 (87.1%) packed red pepper flake samples contained OTA at concentrations ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 μg kg⁻¹, whereas 100% of the unpacked red pepper flake samples contained OTA, in the range 1.1–31.7 μg kg⁻¹. Overall, only 4 unpacked samples (5.3%) contained OTA, with a mean value of 23.4 μg kg⁻¹, which is higher than the European Union limit. It is suggested that OTA content should be carefully considered in red pepper flake samples especially marketed in unpacked form.

KEYWORDS:

• Ochratoxin A
• red pepper flakes
• immunoaffinity column
• HPLC-FLD

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Fund of Istanbul University [Project number: TP- 25266, UDP-51395, BYP-20352].