Intake of ochratoxin A and deoxynivalenol through beer consumption in Belgium

Abstract

À1 bw day À1 when the 97.5th percentile level was considered. As for the DON intake, the estimates were quite low for both conventional and organic beer consumers when the provisional maximum TDI (PMTDI) of 1 mg kg À1 bw was considered. Average consumption of organic beer led to daily intakes of 0.05 and 0.04 mg DON kg À1 bw in 2003 and 2004, respectively, whilst for conventional beer, daily intakes were 0.07 and 0.05 mg DON kg À1 bw. At the 97.5th percentile level of beer consumption, daily intakes of 0.15 and 0.13 mg kg À1 bw were obtained for organic beers against 0.23 and 0.17 mg kg À1 bw for conventional ones. The results showed that beer could be an important contributor to OTA exposure in Belgium, even though a declining trend seems to be apparent during the last year of monitoring. Therefore, efforts should be devoted to maintain the OTA levels as low as reasonably achievable, especially for organic beer