Natural occurrence of emerging Fusarium mycotoxins in ‎malting barley ‎

Abstract

Beauvericin (BEA), enniatins (ENNs A, A1, B and B1) and moniliformin (MON) are secondary ‎metabolites produced mainly by F. avenaceum that contaminate cereals and their by-products ‎worldwide. In recent years, researchers have paid more attention to these mycotoxins and their ‎potential hazards to human and animal health. The present study is based on two annual surveys ‎of commercially grown UK spring malting barley varieties collected between 2007 and 2011. ‎Liquid chromatography double mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to quantify the ‎emerging Fusarium mycotoxins. A total of 223 samples of commercially grown malting barley ‎were analysed from UK fields. The LC-MS/MS method produced a recovery rate in the range of ‎‎87%-99% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 10% for BEA and ENNs and in the range ‎of 83%–89% (RSD 7%) for MON; the detection limit for quantified mycotoxins was in the range ‎of 0.1-0.9 µg kg-1 for ENN A and MON. The most prevalent mycotoxin detected in 100% of the ‎samples was ENN B, with mean concentrations ranging from 3072.9 to 3498.0 µg kg-1 in 2007 ‎and 2009, while in 2010 and 2011, mean concentrations of 1940.5 and 1977.9 µg kg-1 were ‎recorded in barley samples, followed by ENN B1 and A1. MON was detected only in 2010 and ‎‎2011, with incidence rates of 10.1% and 15.5% and a mean concentration of 5.1 to 45.3 µg kg-1. ‎However, No BEA or ENN A was detected in this study. Analysis of the seasonal and regional ‎distribution from 2007 to 2011 showed significant interactions between year and region, year ‎and crop and year and variety in the levels of ENN A1, B1 in samples collected from five regions ‎of the UK (Scotland, South, North, Midlands and East of England). There were significant ‎differences between years in the level of ENN B which the highest was in 2007 in the East of ‎England. MON was analysed in 2010 and 2011, and revealed significant interactions between ‎region and crop, and between crop and variety which was higher in the Midlands. The findings ‎can support the call by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to establish international ‎legislation for these mycotoxins in cereals and their products in a bid to protect humans and ‎animals from potentially associated harmful effects.