Surveys of rice sold in Canada for aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and fumonisins

Approximately 200 samples of rice (including white, brown, red, black, basmati and jasmine, as well as wild rice) from several different countries, including the United States, Canada, Pakistan, India and Thailand, were analysed for aflatoxins, ochratoxin A (OTA) and fumonisins by separate liquid Chromatographic methods in two different years. The mean concentrations for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) were 0.19 and 0.17 ng g−1 with respective positive incidences of 56% and 43% (≥ the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.002 ng g−1). Twenty-three samples analysed in the second year also contained aflatoxin B2 (AFB2) at levels ≥LOD of 0.002 ng g−1 The five most contaminated samples in each year contained 1.44–7.14 ng AFB1 g−1 (year 1) and 1.45–3.48 ng AFB1 g−1 (year 2); they were mostly basmati rice from India and Pakistan and black and red rice from Thailand. The average concentrations of ochratoxin A (OTA) were 0.05 and 0.005 ng g−1 in year 1 and year 2, respectively; incidences of samples containing ≥LOD of 0.05 ng g−1 were 43% and 1%, respectively, in the 2 years. All positive OTA results were confirmed by LC-MS/MS. For fumonisins, concentrations of fumonisin B1 (FB1) averaged 4.5 ng g−1 in 15 positive samples (≥0.7 ng g−1) from year 1 (n = 99); fumonisin B2 (FB2) and fumonisin B3 (FB3) were also present (≥1 ng g−1). In the second year there was only one positive sample (14 ng g−1 FB1) out of 100 analysed. All positive FB1 results were confirmed by LC-MS/MS

Organochlorine insecticides (DDT and heptachlor) in dry fish: Traditional washing and cooking effect on dietary intake

The concentrations of organochlorine insecticides (DDT and heptachlor) were investigated to estimate the effect of various washing and boiling/cooking to elucidate the concentration level we intake actually. For this study five most popular dry fish samples namely bombay duck (loittya), ribbon fish (chhuri), shrimp (chingri), chinese pomfret (rupchanda) and Indian salmon (lakhua) were analyzed. The highest concentrations of DDT and heptachlor were found 737.238 ppb (Indian salmon, normal) and 44.806 ppb (shrimp, normal) respectively; after boiling treatment a big amount was washed out and remained only 135.516 ppb and 16.868 ppb respectively. Boiling treatment was found more effective than the others

Cooking

washing and cooking effect on dietary intak