Analysis of aflatoxins in rustically wines from eastern Romania using the direct real time method (DART)

Abstract

Romania has a long tradition regarding the production of wine rustically or household products. Each householder has the possibility for making its own wine from its own grape vines. Most of them are made and kept using almost no interventions or treatments no corrections or added substances, which could protect them from eventual diseases, which may appear during the winemaking process. The grapes are collected manually by each family alone and it can be called is itself a ritual specific to the each area and a symbol of autumn. In this context, several samples of wine were collected from households located in five Romania eastern counties (Iaşi, Vaslui, Galaţi, Brăila, Ialomiţa and Tulcea). The samples were neither filtered, nor treated against the developing secondary fermentations. This fact increases the risk of infestation with mycotoxins. Twenty samples belonging to the aforementioned regions were analysed using the direct real time method (DART). This method is very fast and does not require any prior preparation of the samples. The goal was to identify the aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2 that are known to be frequently present in wines. From the total of the analysed samples, in four of them it was detected a concentration greater than 20 μg/kg.

Elimination of Aflatoxins B1 and B2 in White and Red Wines by Bentonite Fining. Efficiency and Impact on Wine Quality

“…Contaminated wine samples reached 87.5% of the analyzed ones, and the AFB2 levels ranged from 1.25 to 25.73 µg/L. Nistor et al [14] detected in Romanian wines the highest concentrations for AFB1 and AFG1 (between 26.68 and 33.68 µg/kg). Aflatoxins and aflatoxins-producing strains have also been detected in grapes and grape must in North African countries-Lebanon and Tunisia [15,16].…”

Review of mycotoxins in grapes and grape products

“…In sweet wine from Italy, Di Stefano et al [63] found AFB1 ranging from 0.017-0.035 μg/L, and AFB2 from 0.013-0.016 μg/L. A screening in different wines in Romania measured AFB1 ranging from 12.12 to 33.68 μg/L [82]. However, there is no established limit for aflatoxins in wines, and studies on the content of aflatoxins in wines are limited.…”

Recent Advances in Mycotoxin Analysis and Detection of Mycotoxigenic Fungi in Grapes and Derived Products

“…To monitor OTA presence in wine, different research works have investigated its fate during winemaking [75][76][77] and included efforts to remove it from the final product [78,79]. Apart from OTA, the presence of several other mycotoxins in wine has been studied, with the majority concerning AFBs [80,81], but also other mycotoxins such as FBs [82,83], AOH and other Alternaria toxins [84,85], PAT, CIT, and other Penicillium toxins [39,86,87].…”