Natural co-occurrence of aflatoxin B₁, fumonisin B₁ and ochratoxin A in barley and corn foods from Korea

A survey for aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), fumonisin B₁ and ochratoxin A (OTA) was conducted on 127 samples that included 30 food-grade barley, 32 barley foods, 18 food-grade corn and 47 corn foods, randomly collected during 1998-99 in Seoul, Korea. The presence of mycotoxins was analysed by direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and most of the positive samples from ELISA were confirmed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Recoveries of AFB₁ and OTA spiked at 10 ng g^-1 and FB₁ spiked at 50 ng g^-1 were 106, 87 and 105% by ELISA, whereas those by HPLC were 80, 79 and 84%, respectively. Detection limits by ELISA for AFB₁, FB₁ and OTA were 1, 5 and 5 ng g^-1 and those by HPLC were 0.6, 35 and 1 ng g ^-1. Naturally occurring AFB₁, FB₁ and OTA were found in 4/32 (12%), 2/32(6%) and 4/32 (12%) samples of barley, foods with an average of 26, 16 and 9 ng g^-1, respectively. AFB₁ and FB₁ in corn foods were detected in 4/47 (8%) and 9/47 (19%) samples with the average being 20 and 74 ng g^-1, while no OTA was found in any corn foods samples. No AFB₁, FB₁ or OTA was detected in any of food-grade barley and corn samples. This is the first report on the natural co-occurrence of AFB₁ and FB₁ in barley and corn foods as well as on surveillance of OTA in Korea.