Fumonisin intake of the German consumer

In order to calculate the average fumonisin intake of the German consumer, a large survey was performed on a variety of potentially contaminated products in the period between December 1998 and July 2001. A total of 1960 samples was analysed for fumonisins. Furthermore, 272 of these samples were also analysed for hydrolysed fumonisins. Enzyme immunoassays were used for routine analysis, and confirmatory and control analyses were performed using HPLC and LC-MS/MS. The daily intake of fumonisins was calculated by combining fumonisin contamination data obtained in this study with available food intake data. It was found that in general there is no increased risk for the German consumer of exceeding the recommended tolerable daily intake of fumonisins. However, certain products (or certain batches of products) were repeatedly found to contain elevated fumonisin levels, which in an extreme case could represent a potential risk for the consumer, in particular if foods for infants and young children are concerned. This could be solved by eliminating these peak contamination levels from the human diet through the introduction of maximum tolerable levels for fumonisins