engleski

The exposure of general population in Croatia to ochratoxin A

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is nephrotoxic product of moulds that contaminate various commodities. It is supposed to be the etiological factor in endemic nephropathy, a kidney disease known in western part of Brodsko-posavska county. Most of the previous studies on mycotoxins in our country were focused on OTA in endemic region, but due to the fact that combinations of mycotoxins are frequently found in food and feed, the other mycotoxins are recently included in such investigations. The exposure of general population in Croatia to ochratoxin A (OTA) was checked in several studies by measuring its concentration either in food commodities or in human blood. The concentration of OTA in food and the frequency of OTA-positive samples show high variability from year to year according to the meteorological conditions. Regional variability in OTA contamination of cereals, wine and beans is also significant. However, while higher OTA concentrations and higher number of OTA-positive samples of cereals and beans are found in the northern part of Croatia, wine from the southern part of Croatia contains higher OTA concentrations. These differences are due to the distribution of different moulds producers of OTA that specifically contaminate various commodities. However, large-scale study performed on sera from five Croatian cities collected four times in a year showed the higher mean OTA concentration during summer period. The most exposed are citizens of Osijek, because there was no OTA-free sample collected in this town, and the frequency of samples containing the highest OTA concentration was significantly higher than in other cities. Our result on food contamination with OTA, as well as occasional finding of very high OTA concentration in human sera indicate that preventive measures against the production of OTA, as well as strict control of food are needed.

ochratoxin A; general population; exposure; daily intake

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