Occurrence of pre- and postharvest multi-mycotoxins in durum wheat grains collected in 2020 and 2021 in two climatic regions of Tunisia

ABSTRACT

Twenty two mycotoxins in 136 durum wheat collected from Tunisia in 2020 and 2021 were investigated. Mycotoxins were analyzed by UHPLCMS/MS. In 2020, 60.9% of the samples were contaminated with Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and/or enniatin. Whereas, in 2021, 34.4% were contaminated by enniatins. AFB1 was detected only in 2020, in the continental region (6/46) and all samples exceeded limits. AFB1 was detected in stored wheat (24-37.8 µg/kg) but also in pre-stored wheat (17-28.4 µg/kg) and in one sample collected in the field (21 µg/kg). Enniatin A1, enniatin B and enniatin B1 were detected in wheat collected in the field (30-7684 µg/kg), pre-storage (42-1266 µg/kg) and storage (65.8-498.2 µg/kg) from the continental region also, in sample collected in pre-storage (31.3-1410 µg/kg) and at harvest (48- 1060 µg/kg). Samples had a water activity less than 0.7 and moisture content ranged between 09-14%. AFB1 level represent a health risk to the Tunisian consumers.

KEYWORDS:

• Mycotoxins
• co-occurrence
• UHPLC-MS/MS
• wheat
• Tunisia

Acknowledgments

The authors are also most grateful to the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and to CIRAD for their financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the PHC Maghreb project [09MAG20].