Natural Incidence of Aflatoxins, Ochratoxin A, Patulin and Their Co-Occurrence in Chilgoza Pine Nuts Marketed in Jammu, India

A survey was undertaken to evaluate the occurrence and level of aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA) and patulin (PAT) contaminants in chilgoza pine nuts marketed in Jammu, India during the year 2011–2012. The mycotoxins were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The predominant mycotoxin was AFs which was found in 46.55 % of studied samples with a mean level of 493.913 ± 88.785 ng/g. Contamination with OTA was observed in 36.20 % of samples with a mean level of 2.253 ± 0.487 ng/g, while PAT was detected in four (6.89 %) samples with mean level of 4.556 ± 2.219 ng/g. Mycotoxin co-occurrence was recorded in low frequency. The mycotoxins co-occurrence included ochratoxin A-patulin and aflatoxin-patulin which have been detected in 3.44 and 1.72 % of analyzed samples. Furthermore, the simultaneous contamination by aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and patulin was observed in only one of the studied samples. The paper is the first report on the incidence of these mycotoxin contaminations in chilgoza from the markets of Jammu, India.