Natural occurrence of fumonisins B1 and B2 in maize from eight provinces of China in 2014

ABSTRACT

A total of 249 maize kernel samples from 8 maize-producing provinces of China were collected after the harvest season in 2014. All samples were analysed using high-performance liquid chromatography. The incidences of FBs (FB₁ + FB₂) from Guizhou, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Chongqing, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Henan provinces were 71.4%, 73.8%, 28.0%, 52.6%, 85.0%, 87.5%, 38.1%, and 100.0%, respectively. The average concentration of FBs was 817 µg kg⁻¹ and the concentrations ranged from <6 to 15,252 µg kg⁻¹. Among the 249 maize kernel samples, 28 samples exhibited higher levels as set by the Food and Drug Administration (2000 µg kg⁻¹), whereas 12 samples exhibited higher levels as set by the European Commission (4000 µg kg⁻¹). The average exposure to FBs (0.12 µg kg⁻¹ body weight/day) is within the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake of 2.0 µg kg⁻¹ body weight as set by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.

KEYWORDS:

• Fumonisins
• maize
• China
• HPLC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China Agriculture Research System [CARS-02].