Risk assessment of Fusarium mycotoxins in Lithuanian small cereal grains Audron _ e Mankevi  cien _ e * , Bronislava Butkut _ e, Irena Gauril  cikien _ e, Zenonas Dabkevi  cius, Skaidr _ e Supronien _ e Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, LT-58344 Akademija, K _ edainiai district, Lithuania article info Article history: Received 27 July 2010 Received in revised form 23 November 2010 Accepted 4 December 2010 Keywords: Small cereal grain Fusarium mycotoxins Co-contamination abstract A total of 125 small grain samples, including 60 of winter crop and 65 of spring crop collected during 2006e2007 at harvesting in Lithuanian fields, were involved in the current study on co-occurrence of three Fusarium mycotoxins. All grain samples tested were found to be contaminated with mycotoxins. In 2006, winter cereal grain samples contaminated with one mycotoxin accounted for 16%, and those contaminated with three mycotoxins for 25%. No spring cereal grain samples containing only one toxin were found, while those contaminated with three toxins accounted for 91% of the total samples tested. In the year 2007 winter cereal grain samples contaminated with one toxin accounted for as little as 4%, and all spring cereal grain samples tested were found to be 100% contaminated with deoxynivalenol, zear- alenone, and T-2 toxin. Mycotoxin concentrations in grain samples, in most cases, were within the permissible range. A trend was revealed that spring barley grain samples tested contained higher T-2 concentrations irrespective of the test year. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by a wide variety of fungal species that cause nutritional losses and represent a significant hazard to the food chain (Magan & Aldred, 2007). Cereal plants may be contaminated by mycotoxins in two ways: fungi growing as pathogens on plants or growing saprophytically on stored plants (Glenn, 2007). The exposure risk to human is either directly through foods of plant origin (cereal grains) or indirectly through foods of animal origin (kidney, liver, milk and eggs) (Fokunang, Tembe-Fokunang, Tomkins, & Barkwan, 2006; Gelderblom, Marasas, Vleggaar, Thiel, & Cawood, 1992; Jackson & Bullerman, 1999). Fusarium species are probably the most prevalent toxin-pro- ducing fungi of the northern temperate regions and are commonly found on cereals grown in the temperate regions of America, Europe and Asia (Creppy, 2002). The most important Fusarium mycotoxins are deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEA), T-2 toxin (T-2), fumonisins (FB), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), fusar- enon-X (FUS-X), nivalenol (NIV), diacetylnivalenol (DNIV) and neo- solaniol (NEOS). They are common mycotoxins throughout the world, mainly associated with cereal crops, in particular corn, wheat, barley, rye, rice and oats (Goyarts, Dänicke, Valenta, & Ueberschär, 2007; Krska et al., 2003; Maragos, Bumsan, & Sugita-Konishi, 2006; Omurtag, Yazıcıoglu, Beyoglu, Tozan, & Atak, 2006; Severino, Luongo, Bergamo, Lucisano, & Rossi, 2006). Cereal products are important in our food chain and economy. As a result, foodstuffs need to be controlled/analyzed during pro- cessing and all mycotoxin analyses throughout the entire food chain have importance for human health (Yazar & Omurtag, 2008). In humans, the presence of mycotoxins in foods can be cumulative, leading to cancers and immune-deficiency diseases (Fokunang et al., 2006). DON is type B trichothecenes produced by F. graminearum and F. culmorum among other Fusarium species (Eriksen, 2003; Eriksen & Pettersson, 2004; Pestka & Smolinski, 2005). Both species need different optimum temperatures for growth (25 and 21  C, respectively) and this probably affects geographical distribution (Moss, 2002). DON is a mycotoxin that commonly contaminates cereal-based foods worldwide and it is generally found in various cereal crops such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice and corn and is produced mainly by the two important cereal pathogens: F. gra- minearum, F. culmorum and F. avenaceum which cause head blight in wheat and ear rot in maize (Creppy, 2002; Mankevi cien _ e, Dabkevi cius, Supronien _ e & Ma ckinait _ e, 2007; Mankevi cien _ e, Supronien _ e, Dabkevi cius, & Au skalnien _ e, 2008; Moss, 2002). Natural occurrence of DON in cereals is certainly prevalent and surveys from South America, Canada, China and many countries of Europe have showed contamination levels in excess of 50% in oats, barley and wheat with mean concentration as high as 9 mg kg 1 in * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ370 347 37057; fax: þ370 347 37096. E-mail address: audre@lzi.lt (A. Mankevi cien _ e). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont 0956-7135/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2010.12.004 Food Control 22 (2011) 970e976