A preliminary assessment of dietary exposure of ochratoxin A in Central Anatolia Region, Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine dietary exposure to ochratoxin A (OTA) in Turkish adults. In this study, 500 food samples (50 rice, 50 wheat bread, 50 pasta, 50 raisins, 50 dried figs, 50 pistachios, 50 hazelnuts, 50 almonds, 50 chilli, 25 coffee, and 25 cocoa) collected from Turkey were analysed with a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Moreover, a total of 370 analytical results (110 cereal-based snacks, 95 wine, 35 beer, and 130 chocolate) collected from our previous observations were also used in the evaluation of exposure estimates. OTA was found in 52% of cocoa, 42% of raisins, 40% of coffee, 34% of chilli, 14% of dried figs, 10% of pasta, 8% of pistachios, 6% of wheat bread, 4% of rice, and 4% of hazelnuts. The chronic dietary exposure to OTA for Turkish adults, using lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) concentrations, varied from 0.683 to 4.487 ng/kg body weight (b.w.) per week for mean estimate and from 3.976 to 5.760 ng/kg b.w. per week for the 95th percentile (P95) estimate. Cereals and cereal-based products made the largest contribution (75.3–85.7%) to OTA exposure. Both mean and P95 chronic exposure to OTA were greatly below the tolerable weekly intake of 120 ng/kg b.w. per week and thus not a health concern for Turkish adults.