Aflatoxins (sum of B1, B2, G1, G2) in cereals and cereal‐derived food products

Abstract

An ad-hoc request was received from the European Commission to provide data on levels of aflatoxins (sum of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2) in food samples of cereals and cereal-derived products from the EFSA chemical occurrence database. A total of 2183 food samples collected between 2007 and 2012, and with analytical data on the four aflatoxins of interest, were available in the database. Among the samples, 1341 corresponded to cereals and their milling products and 842 to processed cereal products. Rice (636 samples) and breakfast cereals (346 samples) were the categories with the highest number of samples reported. Some 1964 samples (90%) did not report quantified values for any of the four aflatoxins. For cereals and their milling products, the maximum mean value at Lower Bound (LB) was found in samples of unspecified grain milling products (2.21 µg/kg) while the maximum mean value at Upper Bound (UB) was found in oat milling products (2.60 µg/kg). For processed cereal products the maximum mean value at the LB was found in fine bakery wares (0.45 µg/kg), while the maximum mean value at the UB was found in raw pasta (1.87 µg/kg).