Co-occurrence of mycotoxins in commercial formula milk and cereal-based baby food on the Qatar market

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to explore the occurrence of mycotoxins in commercial baby foods in Doha-Qatar. LCMS/MS- and HPLC-based analysis of baby food (n = 67) for 12 mycotoxins confirmed the presence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1, 33%), ochratoxin A (OTA, 31%), deoxynivalenol (DON, 27%), aflatoxin B1 (AFB1, 22%), fumonisin B2 (FB2, 10%), zearalenone (ZEN, 4%) and T-2 toxin (2%). Noodles exhibited the maximum contamination percentage, with 33% of the samples being contaminated above the EU maximum limits, for at least one mycotoxin. Among the multi-grain flake samples, up to 28% and for the milk and milk-based-cereal samples, 14% contained at least one mycotoxin above the EU maximum limits. From all cereal-based food samples, 22%, 5%, 2% and 2% were concurrently contaminated with 2, 3, 4 and 5 mycotoxins, respectively. The occurrence of toxicological important mycotoxins in Qatari market warrants the implementation of strict regulatory limits to protect human health.

KEYWORDS:

• Food safety
• food contaminants
• co-contamination
• mycotoxins
• infant diet
• baby food

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This publication was made possible by NPRP grant # [NPRP8-392-4-003] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation).