Occurrence of relevant mycotoxins in food commodities consumed in Chile

The aims of this study were to analyse the occurrence of aflatoxins, aflatoxin M1 (AFM₁), fumonisins, ochratoxin A (OTA), patulin (PAT), zearalenone (ZEN) and deoxynivalenol (DON) in foodstuffs consumed in Chile between 2008 and 2017 and to estimate the contribution of main contaminated foodstuff in human exposure by the probable daily intake (PDI) estimation. In 9 years of surveillance, 2020 food samples were analysed with an occurrence of 18.2% and with 2.7% of the samples being over the Chilean regulation. The occurrence of mycotoxins in food were 16% for aflatoxins, 6% for AFM₁, 30% for OTA, 12% for DON, 7% for PAT, 21% for fumonisins and 2% for ZEN. The estimated median PDI of DON because of bread consumption was 129.2 ng/kg bw/day for children and 96.0 ng/kg bw/day in adults. Median PDI because of capsicum consumption was 0.006 ng/kg bw/day for OTA and 0.005 ng/kg bw/day for aflatoxins. Median PDI of aflatoxins was estimated at 0.02 ng/kg bw/day for spices and 0.04 ng/kg bw/day for nuts consumption. In children, the median PDI of AFM₁ for dairy consumption was 0.07 ng/kg bw/day. The derived margin of exposure (MoE) values ranged from 1133 to 8500 suggested that aflatoxins would be of public health concern. The PDI of the other mycotoxins did not show a health risk. This is the first survey of mycotoxins in food made in Chile; further research is needed to improve surveillance and guidelines based on national risk assessments and considering sensitive population groups.