Annual variation of deoxynivalenol in Danish wheat flour 1998-2003 and estimated daily intake by the Danish population

International audienceAbstract The occurrence of deoxynivalenol (DON) in Danish wheat flour was studied during the period from 1998 to 2003 by respectively capillary gas chromatography with electron capture detection and liquid chromatography coupled to an ion trap mass spectrophotometer. A total of 151 samples were collected from mills and the retail market in Denmark. The contamination level varied considerably from year to year with the highest concentrations occurring in samples from the 2002 harvest with mean and median concentrations of 255 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg, respectively. Compared to the other harvest years 2002 had the highest amount of precipitation around flowering time in the end of June and until the beginning of July covering the weeks 25-27. The lowest average levels were found in samples from the harvest of 2001, where the weeks 25, 26 and 27 were dry compared with the other harvest years. The highest value (705 mg/kg) was obtained in a flour sample from the 2002 harvest and so none of the tested samples exceeded the maximum limit of 750 mg/kg, which has been recently introduced by the European Commission for DON in flour used as raw materials in food products. Calculation of the chronic or usual intake by a deterministic approach shows that the intake does not exceed the TDI of 1 μg/kg bw/day either for the whole population or for children. A probabilistic approach also shows that the intake in general is below the TDI, but the intake for children in the 99 % percentile amounts to more than 75% of the TDI. The highest intake is calculated to 2.5 μg/kg bw/day. Keywords: Deoxynivalenol (DON), wheat flour, GC-ECD, LC-MS, annual variation, EU maximum limit, intake calculations.