Natural co-occurrence of aflatoxin B1, fumonisin B1 and ochratoxin A in barley and corn foods from Korea

A survey for aflatoxin B-1 (AFB(1)), fumonisin B-1 and ochratoxin A (OTA) was conducted on 127 samples that included 30 food-grade barley, 32 barley foods, 18 food-grade corn and 47 corn foods, randomly collected during 1998-99 in Seoul, Korea. The presence of mycotoxins was analysed by direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and most of the positive samples from ELISA were confirmed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Recoveries of AFB(1) and OTA spiked at 10 ng g(-1) and FB1 spiked at 50 ng g(-1) were 106, 87 and 105% by ELISA, whereas those by HPLC were 80, 79 and 84%, respectively. Detection limits by ELISA for AFB(1), FB1 and OTA were 1, 5 and 5 ng g(-1), and those by HPLC were 0.6, 35 and 1 ng g(-1). Naturally occurring AFB(1), FB1 and OTA were found in 4/32 (12%), 2/32 (6%) and 4/32 (12%) samples of barley foods with an average of 26, 16 and 9 ng g(-1), respectively. AFB(1) and FB1 in corn foods were detected in 4/47 (8%) and 9/47 (19%) samples with the average being 20 and 74 ng g(-1) while no OTA was found in any corn foods samples. No AFB(1), FB1 or OTA was detected in any of food-grade barley and corn samples. This is the first report on the natural co-occurrence of AFB(1) and FB1 in barley and corn foods as well as on surveillance of OTA in Korea.