Survey of mycotoxins in beer and exposure assessment through the consumption of commercially available beer in Lleida, Spain

Abstract

A multianalyte method, using a MS/MS detector, was applied for a simultaneous determination of 23 mycotoxins in 64 beer products purchased from the supermarket in Lleida, Spain. The samples varied by their origin, brewing technology, alcohol content, etc. The results showed that 20.3% of the tested samples were mycotoxin contaminated overpassing the limit of detection (LOD). None of the alcohol-free samples (17%) were contaminated with mycotoxins. The most frequently occurring toxin was zearalenone (ZEN), being quantified in 65% of the positive samples, with levels ranging from 8.24 to 62.96 μg/L. Regarding the co-occurrence of mycotoxins, three samples were found to contain two or more mycotoxins simultaneously. A deterministic approach was used to evaluate the contribution of beer consumption to daily intake and the proportion of the established tolerable daily intake (TDI) for ZEN and deoxynivalenol (DON) and its metabolite deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (DON-3-G).

The authors are grateful to the University of Lleida (grant JADE Plus 218/2016), and to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, Project AGL2014-55379-P) for funding this work.