Abstract
This research paper was designed mainly in two parts. Primarily, the mycotoxin levels in cereal and bakery products notifications between 2009 and 2018 by using the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) data source were investigated. When the notifications of the last decade are evaluated, the average concentrations of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), total aflatoxins (TAF), and ochratoxin A (OTA) were found 21.92, 34.98, and 23.10 µg/kg, respectively. In the second part of the study, 29 wheat samples grown in the Hatay region of Turkey were analyzed to detect aflatoxin (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2) and OTA concentrations. The mycotoxin concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD) system. The analytical method was validated according to Regulation (EC) No. 401/2006. The recoveries were in the range of 83.0-107.2%. The percentages of positive samples for AFB1, AFB2 and AFG1 were 44.8, 13.8 and 27.6%, respectively. In this study, the most prevalent mycotoxin was OTA (82.8%), which found in the range of 0.174-137.880 µg/kg. Among 5 of the studied samples, it was determined that the OTA level exceeded the European legislation maximum limit of 5 µg/kg. Moreover, OTA levels of three samples were higher than the average of the maximum values of OTA level determined in RASFF notifications.