Mycotoxins in infant/toddler foods and breakfast cereals in the US retail market

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to conduct a mycotoxin survey of commercial infant/toddler foods (cereals and teething biscuits) and breakfast cereals in the United States. A total of 215 retail samples were collected from three geographical locations and analysed for aflatoxins, fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, HT-2 toxin, ochratoxin A, T-2 toxin, and zearalenone using a stable isotope dilution liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method. One or more mycotoxins were found in 69% (101/147) of the infant/toddler foods and 50% (34/68) of breakfast cereals. Mycotoxin co-occurrence was observed in 12% of infant/toddler foods and 32% of breakfast cereals. However, the concentrations of detected mycotoxins were lower than the current FDA action and guidance levels. Aflatoxins and HT-2 toxin were not detected in any of the samples, while deoxynivalenol was the most frequently detected mycotoxin. Rice-based cereals appeared to be less susceptible to mycotoxin contamination than other cereal types.

KEYWORDS:

• Mycotoxins
• breakfast cereals
• infant/toddler foods
• aflatoxins
• deoxynivalenol
• fumonisins
• ochratoxin A
• zearalenone
• LC-MS/MS

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Sherri B. Turnipseed, FDA/Office of Regulatory Affairs/Animal Drugs Research Center, Denver, CO and Dr. Steven Robbs, FDA/Office of Regulatory Affairs/Pacific Regional Laboratory NW, Bothell, WA, for collecting cereals for this study. We thank Drs. Lauren Robin and Gregory Noonan, FDA/Center for Food Safety for their support to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.