Deoxynivalenol as a risk factor causing food grain contamination: Monitoring over crops in 1989–2018 in Russian Federation

The paper dwells on the results obtained via long-term monitoring over food grain contamination with such a mycotoxin as deoxynivalenol (DON); monitored grains include wheat, barley, corn, oats, and rye. From 1989 to 2018 6,800 grain samples were analyzed; they came from Zentralny, Juzhniy, Privolzhskiy, Uralskiy, Sibirskiy, Severo-Kavkazskiy, Dalnevostochniy, and Severozapadniy Federal Districts (FD) in the RF. Depending on a year when a specific crop was gathered, frequency of DON detection in food grain samples varied from 0 to 42 % and maximum toxin contents reached 6.65 mg/kg. Over the whole examined period 10 % samples turned out to be contaminated and one forth of them contained the toxin in quantities exceeding maximum permissible levels (MPL). DON detection frequency amounted to 24–42 % in years when mass epiphytoties occurred (1989, 1992 and 1993) as well as in crops gathered in 2014 and 2017; DON was detected in quantities exceeding MPL in 9–27 % examined samples in those years. 78 % contaminated samples came from Juzhniy and Severo-Kavkazskiy FD and another 10 % were from Dalnevostochniy FD. An authentic correlation between frequency of toxin detection and a number of rainy and sunny days in May was established on the example of wheat samples that came from Krasnodar region. Analysis of contamination dynamics has revealed that over the last years there has been an ascending trend in frequency of DON detection in wheat that came not only from regions where Fusarium head blight was widely spread but also from regions in Severozapadniy, Sibirskiy and Privolzhskiy FD. Health risks related to DON introduction with products obtained via wheat grains processing were assessed; the assessment revealed that DON was introduced in doses higher than conditional acceptable daily intake (ADI) for people living in Juzhniy and Severo-Kavkazskiy FD in 1992, 1993, 2014 and 2017.

Average frequency of DON detection amounted to 4.2; 11.9; 3.0 and 0.6 % for barley, corn, rye, and oats samples and its maximum contents amounted to 8.95; 0.95; 0.96 and 0.44 mg/kg accordingly. Just as it was the case with wheat, the greatest share of contaminated samples came from Juzhniy, Severo-Kavkazskiy and Dalnevostochniy FD. Contamination tended to grow for all the examined grains and it calls for relevant measures aimed at controlling food grains safety.