Occurrence of Ochratoxin A in Raw Ham Muscle, Salami and Dry-Cured Ham from Pigs Fed with Contaminated Diet

Pork meat-derived products can contribute to the overall ochratoxin A intake, either by carry-over effect, or by environmental mould population cross-contamination. In order to assess the role of these different contamination routes, a study was carried out with pigs challenged orally with OTA contaminated feed at subchronical level. After slaughtering, thighs and minced meat from control and treated groups were transformed into dry-cured hams and salami, respectively, which were analysed for OTA determination after ripening. From collected data, the carry-over in muscle was generally low, whereas a significant contribution to the OTA contamination in dry-cured hams was due to toxinogenic mould population growing on their surface during ripening. Finally, a survey of different types of dry-cured ham (n = 110), from the Italian market, was performed, showing the occurrence of OTA on the surface portion in 84 out of 110 samples with a median value of 0.53 µg/kg and in the inner core in 32 out of 110 samples with a median value lower than 0.1 µg/kg.

DALL'ASTA Chiara;  GALAVERNA Gianni;  BERTUZZI Terenzio;  MOSERITI Alessandra;  PIETRI Amedeo;  DOSSENA Arnaldo;  MARCHELLI Rosangela; 

2010-11-30

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

JRC60322

0308-8146,   

www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC60322,   

10.1016/j.foodchem.2009.11.036,