Determination of Ochratoxin A in Food by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is an important mycotoxin that is produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium species. Ochratoxin A is a common contaminant of various foods including cereals, spices, coffee, cacao, beer, wine, raisins, pulses, meat, meat products, or edible offal. Due to a wide range of its toxic effects in humans and animals, ochratoxin A needs to be monitored. With regard to this necessity, a sensitive HPLC-FD method for purposes of the quantification of trace amounts of ochratoxin A in foods of plant and animal origin was developed, validated and applied for analysis. Food samples were cleaned using commercial immunoaffinity columns and analyzed by means of a high performance liquid chromatography method with fluorescence detection. Limit of quantification of the method ranged between 0.01–0.30 µg/kg depending on the sample matrix. Recoveries were 80–88% in the concentration range of 0.01–0.30 µg/kg, depending upon sample type. The quality of laboratory results was confirmed by successful participation in international inter-laboratory proficiency testing. This laboratory was accredited accordance to CSN ISO/EN 17025. The developed method was applied to the determination of ochratoxin A in samples from 61 types of foodstuffs of plant and animal origin, that were collected in 4 sampling terms at 12 regions of the Czech Republic in years 2011–2012. In total, 732 food samples were gathered and analyzed.