Survey of mycotoxins in food: Year 2

Mycotoxins are naturally-occurring chemicals produced by certain fungi. Some of these mycotoxins have been associated with a variety of adverse human health effects, and are regulated within the EU to minimise consumer exposure through food. Mycotoxins can occur in a wide range of foods, including cereals, nuts, spices, fruit, coffee, milk and alcoholic beverages, and at any stage throughout the food chain.

The Food Standards Agency has commissioned a four-year rolling surveillance programme to quantify a number of mycotoxins in a variety of foods. Here we report the results of the second year of surveillance, which comprised three surveys:

• Survey 1: Mycotoxins in food products for infants and young children
• Survey 2: Ergot alkaloids in cereals and cereal products
• Survey 3: Patulin in apple juice

The surveys show that the vast majority of the samples tested contained levels of mycotoxins below the regulatory limits, with only one sample found to contain a level of mycotoxin above the regulatory limit laid down in EU legislation. The data on ergot alkaloids in various cereal products, for which regulatory limits do not exist, has helped to inform European Food Safety Authority's ongoing risk assessment and any future EU discussions.

Overall, the results of these three surveys are reassuring. They do not raise concerns for consumer health in the UK as regards exposure of infants and young children to mycotoxins from food products intended for these age groups or to exposure of consumers in general.