Aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in different cocoa clones (Theobroma cacao L.) developed in the southern region of Bahia, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Brazil is the sixth largest producer of cocoa beans in the world, after Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and Cameroon. The southern region of Bahia stands out as the country’s largest producer, accounting for approximately 60% of production. Due to damage caused by infestation of the cocoa crop with the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa, which causes ‘witch’s broom disease’, research in cocoa beans has led to the cloning of species that are resistant to the disease; however, there is little information about the development of other fungal genera in these clones, such as Aspergillus, which do not represent a phytopathogenicity problem but can grow during the pre-processing of cocoa beans and produce mycotoxins. Thus, the aim of this work was to determine the presence of aflatoxin (AF) and ochratoxin A (OTA) in cocoa clones developed in Brazil. Aflatoxin and ochratoxin A contamination were determined in 130 samples from 13 cocoa clones grown in the south of Bahia by ultra-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector. The method was evaluated for limit of detection (LOD) (0.05–0.90 μg kg⁻¹), limit of quantification (0.10–2.50 μg kg⁻¹) and recovery (RSD) (89.40–95.80%) for AFB₁, AFB₂, AFG₁, AFG₂ and OTA. Aflatoxin contamination was detected in 38% of the samples in the range of <LOD–17.795 μg kg⁻¹, with AFB₁ in 25% of the total samples, whereas ochratoxin A was positive in 18% of the samples in the range of <LOD–274.90 μg kg⁻¹.

KEYWORDS:

• Mycotoxins
• fluorescence
• co-occurrence

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Coordination of Professional Improvement at the Tertiary Level (CAPES), a strategic research initiative in the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Ministry of Education, project number 23038,019085/2009-14. Professor Elisa Yoko Hirooka is a CNPq researcher.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [23038,019085 / 2009-14].