The fate of several trichothecenes and zearalenone during roasting and enzymatic treatment of cereal flour applied in cereal-based infant food production

Cereal-based baby food production process is expected to have an impact on the initial level of Fusarium mycotoxins that can contaminate the raw materials. The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes of some of these toxins during roasting and the treatment with amylolytic enzymes, usually applied during the production process. Three different cereal flours contaminated with Fusarium graminearum were considered (barley, wheat and oat). The results did not show significant changes in the concentration of any of the studied mycotoxins (up to 5% change in deoxynivalenol concentration after the enzymes were added). The acetyl-deoxynivalenol also showed slight modifications as a result of the applied processes, however their statistical significance was not proved. Zearalenone and T-2 and HT-2 toxins remained almost unaltered throughout the study. 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 AGL2017-87755-R) for funding this work.