Detection of ochratoxin A in Hungarian wines and beers

Ochratoxin A is a mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium species. This mycotoxin is a common contaminant of various food products including cereal products, spices, dried fruits, coffee, beer and wine. Besides cereal products, beer and wine contribute significantly to ochratoxin exposure of humans. We examined the ochratoxin content of Hungarian wines and beers using an immunochemical technique. The detection limit of this technique is 0.01 square g l(-1). Altogether 65 wine and 25 beer samples were analysed. The presence of ochratoxin A was confirmed by HPLC in positive samples. Ochratoxin A was detected in 97.7% of wines, with ochratoxin concentrations ranging from 0 to 0.533 square g l(-1). The mean ochratoxin A concentration in wines was 0.110 square g l(-1). Only one of the Hungarian wines examined contained more than 0.5 square g l(-1) ochratoxin A, the previously suggested EU limit for wine. Our data indicate that red wines are more frequently contaminated, and have higher mean ochratoxin contamination (0.117 square g ml(-1)) than white wines (0.096 square g ml(-1)), in accordance with previous observations. A North-South gradient in wine ochratoxin concentrations is not evident from our data. For beers, all but one of the samples was found to be contaminated with small amounts of ochratoxin A with a mean concentration of 0.127 square g l(-1) (range: 0.030-0.250 square g l(-1)). Only one of the beers contained ochratoxin A above 0.2 square g l(-1), the anticipated European Community maximum allowable limit in beer. We could not detect correlation between the type and origin of beer and ochratoxin contamination.