title: Levels of mycotoxins and sample cytotoxicity of selected organic and conventional grain-based products purchased from Finnish and Italian markets.
abstract: The contamination levels of 16 different Fusarium- and Aspergillus-mycotoxins were chemically determined from randomly selected organic and conventional grain-based products purchased from Finnish and Italian markets. The cytotoxicity of the samples was analyzed with an in vitro test using feline fetal lung cells. Overall, the concentrations of the mycotoxins studied were low in all of the samples. Enniatins B and B1 as well as deoxynivalenol were the most predominant mycotoxins in the samples, being present in 97%, 97%, and 90% of the samples, respectively. The geographical origin or the agricultural practice had no influence on the mycotoxin concentrations of the samples. The babyfoods included in the samples had significantly lower concentrations of mycotoxins than the other products with a mean total mycotoxin content of 47 microg/kg compared with 99 microg/kg for the other kinds of food. All the samples evoked toxicity in the in vitro test, but no correlation between cytotoxicity and the mycotoxin concentrations was observed.
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary and Food Research Institute (EELA), Department of Chemistry, Helsinki, Finland. marika.jestoi@eela.fi
authors.forename: Marika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jestoi
authors.forename: Maria Carmela
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Somma
authors.forename: Merja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kouva
authors.forename: Pirjo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veijalainen
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ritieni
authors.forename: Kimmo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Peltonen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001230:Aspergillus; D002415:Cats; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000737:chemistry*; D005333:Fetus; D005387:Finland; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D058870:Food, Organic / Q000032:analysis; D005670:Fusarium; D007558:Italy; D008168:Lung / Q000166:cytology; D009183:Mycotoxins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D009183:Mycotoxins