Ochratoxin A contamination in “passito” wines of Calabria

The worldwide occurrence of Ochratoxin A (OTA) in raw and processed foods has been well documented. In wine, the amount of OTA depends on the latitude of the production area and climatic differences related to geographic region. Differences on OTA levels due to different weather conditions in samples collected from the same regions but at different years and in winemaking process have been also reported. No studies have been conducted to date of Greco di Bianco PDO and Mantonico IGP both bottled from 2001 until 2009 were analysed using immunoaffinity column clean- OTA contamination. All samples contained low amounts of OTA (UE legal limit 2 μg/l). Mantonico IGP shown a low level of OTA contamination (<LOD to 0.06 μg/l) compared to the Greco di Bianco PDO (0.07-0.44 μg/l). study are aged in barrels for three years before bottling. According to literature data and to the results obtained in this study it can be assumed that a further reduction in the contamination level could be due to this practice. Despite the climatic and the geographical conditions conducive to the development and production of mold, this that probably leads to a non significant human exposure to OTA by consumption of this wines. A further study will determine the effect of cultivars and mould strains the molecular characterization of toxigenic molds.