Blood, breast milk and urine: potential biomarkers of exposure and estimated daily intake of ochratoxin A: a review

ABSTRACT

The purposes of this review are to study potential biomarkers of exposure for ochratoxin A (OTA) in biological fluids (blood, urine and breast milk) for the period 2005–14, calculate the estimated daily intake (EDI) of OTA by using database consumption for the Spanish population, and, finally, to correlate OTA levels detected in blood and EDI values calculated from food products. The values of OTA detected in potential biomarkers of exposure for blood, breast milk and urine ranged from 0.15 to 18.0, from 0.002 to 13.1, and from 0.013 to 0.2 ng ml^–1, respectively. The calculated EDI for OTA in plasma ranged from 0.15 to 26 ng kg^–1 bw day^–1, higher than that obtained in urine (0.017–0.4 ng kg^–1 bw day^–1). All these values are correlated with the range of EDI for OTA calculated from food products: 0.0001–25.2 ng kg^–1 bw day^–1.

KEYWORDS:

• Ochratoxin A
• mycotoxins
• biomarkers
• estimated daily intake
• exposure

ORCID

María-José Ruiz http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4174-6688

Ana Juan-Garcia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5988-0490

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity [grant number AGL2013-43194-P]. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.