Occurrence of mycotoxins in refrigerated pizza dough and risk assessment of exposure for the Spanish population

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by filamentous fungi, as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. The first objective of this research was to study the presence of mycotoxins in 60 samples of refrigerated pizza dough, by extraction with methanol and determination by liquid chromatography associated with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Then, the estimated dietary intakes (EDIs) of these mycotoxins, among the Spanish population, was calculated and the health risk assessment was performed, comparing the EDIs data with the tolerable daily intake values (TDIs). The mycotoxins detected in the analyzed samples were aflatoxin B-1 (AFB(1)), aflatoxin B-2 (AFB(2)), aflatoxin G(1) (AFG(1)), zearalenone (ZEA), enniatin A (ENA), enniatin A(1) (ENA(1)), enniatin (ENB), enniatin B-1 (ENB1) and BEA (beauvericin) with average concentration of the positive samples of 4.09 mu/kg, 0.50 mu/kg, 0.79 mu/kg, 77.78 mu/kg, 14.96 mu/kg, 4.54 mu/kg, 3.37 mu/kg, 1.69 mu/kg and 22.39 mu/kg, respectively. The presence of ZEA, ENA(1), ENB and ENB1 was detected in 100% of the samples, AFB(2) in 32%, AFB(1) in 23%, ENA in 8% and BEA in 3%. Twelve percent of the samples contaminated with AFB(1) and 12% of the doughs contaminated with ZEA exceeded the EU legislated maximum limits. The dietary intakes were estimated considering three different age groups of population, and the EDIs calculated for the mycotoxins detected in the samples were all below the established TDI. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.