Fusarium mycotoxin content of UK organic and conventional wheat

Simon G Edwards (1)

1 Harper Adams University

Each year (2001-2005), three hundred samples of wheat from fields of known agronomy were analysed for ten trichothecenes by GC/MS including deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol, 3-acetylDON, 15-acetylDON, fusarenone X, T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol, neosolaniol and T-2 triol and zearalenone by HPLC. Of the eleven mycotoxins analysed from 1624 harvest samples of wheat only eight were detected, of these only five, deoxynivalenol, 15-acetylDON, nivalenol, HT-2 and zearalenone were detected above 100 μg kg-1. Deoxynivalenol was the most frequently detected fusarium mycotoxin, present above the limit of quantification (10 μg kg-1) in 86% of samples, and was usually present at the highest concentration. The percentage of samples which would have exceeded the recently introduced legal limits varied between 0.4% and 11.3% over the five-year period. There was a good correlation between deoxynivalenol and zearalenone concentrations although the relative concentration of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone fluctuated between years. Year and region had a significant effect on all mycotoxins analysed. There was no significant difference in the DON concentration of organic and conventional samples. There was also no significant difference in the concentration of zearalenone between organic and conventional samples however organic samples did have a significantly lower concentration of HT-2 and T-2. Overall, the risk of UK wheat exceeding the newly introduced legal limits for fusarium mycotoxins in cereals intended for human consumption is low, but the percentage of samples above these limits will fluctuate between years.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Simon G Edwards. Fusarium mycotoxin content of UK organic and conventional wheat. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2009, 26 (04), pp.496-506. ⟨10.1080/02652030802530679⟩. ⟨hal-00577345⟩