A two-year study on the occurrence and concentration of mycotoxins in corn varieties with different endosperm textures.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Mycotoxin monitoring in cereal grains has great importance in the food and feed industries. This study evaluated mycotoxin contamination in corns with different endosperm textures in 2 years of cultivation. Samples of dent, semi-dent, flint and semi-flint corns from field experiments were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). RESULTS: Occurrences of fumonisins B1 (FB1 ) and B2 (FB2 ) in 2020 were 45.72% (mean 270 µg kg-1 ) and 35.89% (94.97 µg kg-1 ), respectively, and 68.98% (446 µg kg-1 ) and 45.83% (152 µg kg-1 ) in 2021. Occurrence of aflatoxin B1 was 11.96% (0.16 µg kg-1 ) in 2020 and 11.11% (0.13 µg kg-1 ) in 2021. In 2020, deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenona (ZEA) presented occurrences of 1.28% and 1.70%, with means of 4.08 and 2.45 µg kg-1 , respectively. In 2021, results were 8.33% (31.00 µg kg-1 ) for DON and 8.79% (4.38 µg kg-1 ) for ZEA. Citrinin, diacetoxyscirpenol and fusarenon-X did not occur in 2020 but presented 1.66%, 0.83%, and 2.50% positive rates in 2021, respectively. In 2020, flint corn presented the lowest concentration of FB1 whereas dent corn presented the highest concentration of FB1 and FB2 (P < 0.05). In 2021, dent corn presented the highest means of FB1 , FB2 and diacetoxyscirpenol (P < 0.05). Dent and semi-dent presented the highest concentration of nivalenol (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The endosperm texture influenced mycotoxin contamination in corn grains, especially FB1 and FB2 , which had the highest concentration in dent corn in the 2 years of this study. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.