| Abstract: | A survey on the occurrence of ochratoxin A (OTA) in 240 grape‐based beverages was carried out. Red and white wines from four different Spanish Designations of Origin (n = 160), musts (n = 20), grape juices (n = 10), ordinary wines (n = 20), special wines (Malaga, muscatel, sherry, vermouth, etc) (n = 20) and sparkling wines (n = 10) were assayed for OTA content using immunoaffinity column clean‐up and high‐performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection (detection limit 0.05 µg l?1). Forty‐three (17.9%) of the samples tested contained detectable levels of OTA. The overall mean OTA concentration in red and white wines of Designations of Origin was 0.30 and 0.18 µg l?1 respectively (ranges 0.05–3.19 and 0.05–1.13 µg l?1 respectively). The percentage of wine samples with detectable amounts of OTA was higher for red (18.3%) than for white (10%) wines. OTA was also found in two of 10 red ordinary wines (0.68 and 4.24 µg l?1), whereas none of 10 white ordinary wines contained OTA. The mean OTA amount detected in sparkling wines was 0.44 µg l?1 (range 0.14–0.71 µg l?1). Two of 20 must samples contained OTA at low levels (0.08 and 0.18 µg l?1), while none of 10 grape juice samples contained OTA. Highest amounts of OTA were found in special wines (45%), with a maximum of 15.25 µg l?1 in a muscatel sample. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry |
