Ochratoxin A in Infant Food from Amazon Region in Brazil

Abstract

Children's foods have diversified both in terms of flavor options and practicality to attract consumers. However, sanitary aspects involving the presence of toxic agents such as mycotoxins, substances with carcinogenic effects, must be considered. As the child consumer is still in body formation and whose exposure limit to contaminants needs to be assessed, the objective of the work was to monitor the occurrence of contamination by ochratoxin A in children's foods produced in the Amazon region - Brazil. The samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography and the results showed that 16.7% of the samples were contaminated. As this was pioneering work, we suggest that monitoring be a routine adopted by government agencies and that producing companies seek to qualify their suppliers and processes to guarantee safe food for children.