Alternaria toxins in various food marketed in China and dietary exposure assessment

ObjectiveTo investigate occurrence of alternaria toxins various food marketed in China， and to evaluate dietary exposure and their potential health risks.MethodsA total of 7 694 samples of 11 types foods， including wheat flour， bread， and tomato sauce and so on， were randomly collected in 14 Provinces including He’nan ， Heilongjiang， and Hubei Province and so on. Those samples analyzed for alternariol（AOH）， alternariol monomethyl ether（AME）， tenuazonic acid（TeA） and tentoxin（TEN） by isotope dilution-ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Based on the survey of dietary consumption of residents in China， and dietary exposure of alternaria toxin was calculated by point estimate model. Comparison between dietary exposure and toxicological threshold of concern（TTC） recommended by European Food Safety Authority （EFSA）， those were used to evaluate the health risks.ResultsThe occurrence of alternaria toxin in wheat flour and tomato sauce was higher than 95%， the average concentration （118 μg/kg） in tomato sauce was the highest. The detection rate （6.05%） and average concentration （0.07 μg/kg） in tomato were the lowest. The most frequently found alternaria toxin was TeA（68%）.The average daily exposure of AOH， AME， TeA and TEN in Chinese general population was 3.67，4.39，139 and 25.1 ng/（kg·BW/d）， respectively.ConclusionThere are commonly contaminated with alternaria toxin in wheat flour， wheat-based products and tomato sauce. The health risk of dietary intake of TeA and TEN was low. There was a certain chronic toxicity risk associated with long-term low-dose exposure to AOH and AME， wheat flour and its products were the main contribution foods. The average exposure levels of TeA and TEN did not exceed their respective TTC values， while the average exposure levels of AOH and AME exceeded their respective TTC values， thus the chronic toxicity risks of these two substances need to be paid attention to. As TTC is a highly conservative screening assessment， further evaluation is required after the toxicological data is complete.