Fumonisin occurrence in wheat-based products from Argentina

ABSTRACT

In Argentina, wheat is the most consumed cereal by the human population. Since fumonisins occurence in wheat grains and wheat-based products have been reported worldwide, a survey was conducted in order to determine fumonisin contamination in 91 wheat-based products (white wheat flour samples, wheat flour used at bakery products and whole-wheat flour samples) collected from different retail stores of Rio Cuarto city in Argentina using HPLC-MS/MS. Sixty-seven samples (74%) showed contamination by fumonisins. From these samples, 16 showed fumonisin levels between LOD and LOQ (between 0.01 to 0.05 ng/g), while fumonisins (FB₁ + FB₂) in quantifiable samples ranged from 0.05 ng/g to 18.9 ng/g. Although FB₁ was more prevalent, FB₂ was foun3d in higher levels than FB₁. Overall, fumonisin prevalence was high, but concentrations were far below EU or USA limits set for maize and maize-based products.

KEYWORDS:

• Fumonisins
• wheat-based products
• HPLC-MS/MS
• Argentina
• quantitative analysis

Acknowledgements

Nichea, M.J. and Cendoya, E. are fellows of CONICET and Ramirez, M.L., Chiacchiera, S., Zacchetti, V. and Monge, M.P, are members of the Research Career of CONICET.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (SECyT-UNRC) and CONICET (the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina).