Estimation of dietary intake of ochratoxin A from liquorice confectionery

Ochratoxin A (OTA) was analyzed from 44 liquorice confectionery samples using immunoaffinity cleanup and liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection. The presence of OTA was confirmed by methyl-ester derivatization. Liquorice confectionery samples were purchased from different retail outlets and supermarkets in Spain during 2007–2008, 16 of hard candies and 28 of soft candies. The incidence of OTA varied between 75% and 39% and mean ranged from 2.96 to 0.34 μg/kg for hard and soft candies, respectively. Assuming a total mean value of 1.29 μg OTA/kg sweet and a consumption of about 1.2 g liquorice sweets per day, an OTA weekly uptake of 11 ng was obtained, or, based on a total body weight of 30 kg for a child consuming these sweets regularly, a weekly intake of 0.37 ng/kg body weight. This corresponds to 0.31% of the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) established by the European Food Safety Authority based of toxicological studies. Risk assessment in a worst case scenario (children high consumers and maximum content of OTA) represented 8.94% TWI by liquorice confectionery alone.