Automated HPLC method for the determination of Ochratoxin A in wine samples

Recently food safety issues received increasing attention and they will be more and more the matter of interest of risk assessors. Among the others, Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination in wine resulted in an emerging risk for consumers. Recently, both monitoring programs and researches have been performed, aimed at individuating the status of contamination worldwide and critical control points in the wine-making chain. At the moment,,all studies confirmed that red wines resulted in contamination more frequently and at higher levels than white wines. This paper describes a study to carry out an automated method of analysis for the determination of OTA in wine samples, in order to process a high number of samples for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) purposes. Method performance characteristics, such as repeatability, internal reproducibility, and accuracy, showed good performance and reliability of the method adequately matching with the criteria suggested by Comite Europeen de Normalisation (CEN) for the analysis of mycotoxins. The advantages coming out from this method are, therefore, the saving of time of analysis, the possibility to analyze large amounts of samples, the reduction of the employment of personnel, and the obtaining of all the requirements requested by the national legislation dealing with the official control of foodstuffs.