Ochratoxin A in Spanish exportation wine market

The Rioja Qualified Designation of Origin (DOCa Rioja) is leader of the Spanish market of quality wines, with nearly the 40% of the total sales of Spanish wines. It has a great international prestige and it exports about 30% of its production, mainly to Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. A study on ochratoxin A (OTA) occurrence in DOCa Rioja exportation wine market was carried out. Wines from Australia, France, Italy and Spain were analyzed. An analytical method based on immunoaffinity column clean-up and high-performance liquid-chromatography with fluorimetric detection (detection limit 0.002 μg/l) was used to determine the occurrence of OTA in wines. The mean OTA concentration of the analyzed wines was 0.077 μg/l and its contribution to the latest mean weekly OTA intake established and published by European Food Safety Authority in 2006 could be considered negligible. The highest OTA presence and concentration in wines from the southern wine-growing European regions was observed. The OTA occurrence found in the wines analyzed in this survey, was significantly higher than the one obtained in DOCa Rioja wines in a previous survey carried out by our team.