Dietary exposure to mycotoxins of the Hong Kong adult population from a Total Diet Study

Dietary exposure of Hong Kong adults to mycotoxins and their metabolites including aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisins (FNs), deoxynivalenol (DON), acetyldeoxynivalenols (AcDONs) and zearalenone (ZEA) was estimated using the Total Diet Study (TDS) approach to assess the associated health risk to the local people. Sixty commonly consumed food items, collected in four seasons, were sampled and prepared as consumed. These mycotoxins were primarily found at low levels. The highest mean levels (upper bound) were: AFs, 1.50 µg kg–1 in legumes, nuts and seed; OTA, 0.22 µg kg–1 in sugars and confectionery; FNs, 9.76 µg kg–1 in cereals and their products; DON and AcDONs, 33.1 µg kg–1 in cereals and their products; and ZEA, 53.8 µg kg–1 in fats and oils. The estimated dietary exposures of Hong Kong adults to the mycotoxins analysed were well below the respective health-based guidance values, where available. For AFs, the upper-bound exposure for high consumers is 0.0049 µg kg bw–1 day–1, which was estimated to contribute to about 7.7 (< 1%) of liver cancer cases when compared with 1222 liver cancer cases per year in Hong Kong. The percentage contributions of the estimated 95th percentile dietary exposures (lower and upper bound) to the health-based guidance values of individual mycotoxins were: ochratoxin A, 3.6–9.2%; fumonisins, 0.04–8.5%; deoxynivalenol and acetyldeoxynivalenols, 21.7–28.2%; and zearalenone 3.3–34.5%. The findings indicate that dietary exposures to all the mycotoxins analysed in this study were unlikely to pose an unacceptable health risk to the Hong Kong population.