Study on distribution of mycotoxins in cocoa beans

Abstract

Mycotoxins are not homogeneously distributed in foods which come in naturally small units, such as pistachios and peanuts, and may instead be extremely inhomogeneously distributed due to the occurrence of so-called hot spots. Tests conducted on pistachios, for example, show that a mouldy kernel can be so strongly contaminated with mycotoxins that it has a significant impact on the contamination profile of several thousand kernels. This makes a representative sampling of such foodstuffs very important but also a very difficult task. Whether cocoa beans also have a tendency to form so-called mycotoxin hot spots is hitherto unknown.

A miniaturised analysis method was used in tests made on several independent batches of cocoa beans and although these tests showed that the mycotoxins ochratoxin A and the aflatoxins are not homogeneously distributed in cocoa, the tested batches revealed no real hot spots.