THE EFFECT OF DRY AND WET THERMAL TREATAMENT ON LEVELS OF AFLATOXIN B1 AND OCHRATOXIN A PRESENT IN BRAN AND WHOLEMEAL CEREAL

Abstract

The effect of dry and wet thermal treatment was studied on levels of aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A contaminating simultaneously defatted rice bran, wholemeal wheat and wholemeal oat, employed in the production of baby food. Each  sample was artificially contaminated with different concentrations of each mycotoxins (3 to 95 ppb) and the thermal treatments  were  carried out in oven at 220ºC and  autoclave (121ºC; 1,1 Pa man) during  5 and 15 minutes. The residual mycotoxins were quantified, after confirmation by chemical derivation, as thin layer multimethod.  The thermal treatments and exposure time decreased the levels of mycotoxins until levels lower than the detection limits in 45 and 64% of the studied condition for aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A respectively. The defatted rice bran was best decontaminated by the wet thermal treatment and the wholemeal by dry treatment.