A survey of ochratoxin A occurence in Greek wines

A total of 150 wines, including 123 dry wines (64 red, 49 white and 10 rose) and 27 dessert wines (14 red and 13 white), were obtained from various viticulture and oenological practices across Greece during the period 1999-2006 and analyzed for ochratoxin a (OTA) using immunoaffinity clean-up and HPLC with fluorescence detection. There was a high frequency of OTA in commercially available wines (69% positive samples). However, the level of contamination was relatively low, with only one sample marginally reaching the EU permitted maximum level (2.0 mu g l-1). A total of 91% of the samples had OTA concentrations 1.0 mu g l-1. The higher concentrations were found in wines from the southern regions, especially in dessert-type wines. There were no significant differences based on wine color or production years. Furthermore, there was no difference between conventional or organic cropping systems in terms of OTA presence.