[Ochratoxin A contamination of cereal grain harvested in 2003 and 2004 years]

The analysis of ochratoxin A--mycotoxin produced by widely distributed Aspergillus and Penicillium--of cereal grain harvested in 2003 - 2004 years were performed by immunoaffinity column clean-up and HPLC with fluorescence detection. This survey examined 282 samples of raw grain wheat, rye, barley and oat 13.8% of all samples contaminated by ochratoxin A in the range 0.2-33.3 mg/kg. Calculation made on the basis of the obtained means showed that the daily ochratoxin A intake of human from cereal grain were from 1.58 to 2.84 ng/kg b.w. Scientific Committee for Food of the European Commission suggested that it was prudent to reduce exposure to ochratoxin A as much as possible below 5 ng/kg bw/day. Codex Alimentarius and European Commission have established maximum permissible level of 5 mg/kg for ochratoxin A in raw cereal grains.