Ochratoxin A in wines, musts and grape juices from Spain

A survey on the occurrence of ochratoxin A (OTA) in 240 grape‐based beverages was carried out. Red and white wines from four different Spanish Designations of Origin ( n = 160), musts ( n = 20), grape juices ( n = 10), ordinary wines ( n = 20), special wines (Malaga, muscatel, sherry, vermouth, etc) ( n = 20) and sparkling wines ( n = 10) were assayed for OTA content using immunoaffinity column clean‐up and high‐performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection (detection limit 0.05 µg l −1 ). Forty‐three (17.9%) of the samples tested contained detectable levels of OTA. The overall mean OTA concentration in red and white wines of Designations of Origin was 0.30 and 0.18 µg l −1 respectively (ranges 0.05–3.19 and 0.05–1.13 µg l −1 respectively). The percentage of wine samples with detectable amounts of OTA was higher for red (18.3%) than for white (10%) wines. OTA was also found in two of 10 red ordinary wines (0.68 and 4.24 µg l −1 ), whereas none of 10 white ordinary wines contained OTA. The mean OTA amount detected in sparkling wines was 0.44 µg l −1 (range 0.14–0.71 µg l −1 ). Two of 20 must samples contained OTA at low levels (0.08 and 0.18 µg l −1 ), while none of 10 grape juice samples contained OTA. Highest amounts of OTA were found in special wines (45%), with a maximum of 15.25 µg l −1 in a muscatel sample. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry