Determination of T-2/HT-2 toxins in duplicate diets in the Netherlands by GC-MS/MS method development and estimation of human exposure

T-2 and HT-2 toxins (T-2 and HT-2) are important trichothecenes. They have been subject of formal risk assessment by various organisations, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The EFSA CONTAM Panel recently established a group Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) of 100 ng/kg body weight/day for the sum of T-2 and HT-2. To assess the actual dietary exposure of Dutch consumers to T-2 and HT-2 a study was conducted in the Netherlands, in which duplicate portions of 24-h diets collected in 2011 were investigated for these toxins. This collection comprised 128 duplicate diets of the adult segment of the Dutch population, divided over a spring and autumn collection period. The diets in the study were homogenised and processed to lyophilised powders. Aliquots of every two of the samples were pooled to test portions that were analysed with a method, based on immunoaffinity chromatography clean-up in combination with GC-MS/MS determination. The method had a limit of quantification of 0.01 mu g/kg original non-lyophilised diet for both T-2 and HT-2. Recoveries ranged from 92-114% for T-2 and from 71-106% for HT-2, determined at levels of addition ranging from 0.1-0.3 mu g/kg. In practically all samples investigated, numerical values for the concentrations of T-2 and HT-2 could be obtained. Exposure estimates of the sum of T-2 and HT-2 in the 2011 study ranged from non-detectable to 18.6 ng/kg body weight/day. In addition limited sets of pooled samples of duplicate diets retained from collections in the period 1976-2004 were analysed for T-2 and HT-2. In all samples the mean and individual intakes of the sum of T-2 and HT-2 of the respondents were below the group TDI of the EFSA CONTAM Panel. From this study it was concluded that no health risks are expected from current exposure of adult Dutch consumers to T-2 and HT-2.