Occurrence of fumonisins B1 and B2 in maize

Abstract

Maize is one of the most widely used staple foods and animal feeds in the world due to its notable amounts of vitamins, minerals and nutrients, as well as several health benefits for human and animal organisms. In Serbia, approximately 35% of the entire planted area of field crops is covered with maize. During cultivation, maize is exposed to multiple abiotic and biotic stress factors which can trigger maize contamination with numerous fungal secondary metabolites. Fusarium presents one of the most common fungal genera with the capability to produce various toxic mycotoxins in maize, including fumonisins. Among all identified fumonisins, B1 and B2 are the most toxic and could induce esophageal cancer. Due to that, there is a need for continuous monitoring and analysis of fumonisins B1 and B2 in food and feed. This work aimed to examine the occurrence of fumonisins B1 and B2 in maize samples harvested in the Republic of Serbia for four years (2018-2021) and to investigate the impact of weather conditions on the concentration of fumonisins. Determination of the analytes concentrations was conducted using the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method (LC-MS/MS). Fumonisins B1 and B2 were detected in 100% maize samples from the 2018, 2020 and 2021 production years. Furthermore, the maize samples from 2019 contained 92 and 87% of the fumonisins B1 and B2, respectively. The differences in mean concentrations of fumonisins were detected within investigated years, which could be explained by different weather conditions required for their synthesis. Based on these results, it could be concluded, that the weather conditions (especially air temperature and amount of precipitation) in the investigated maize growing seasons have a significant influence on the determined concentrations of fumonisins B1 and B2 in maize. The results of our previous investigations concerning the contamination of maize from the Republic of Serbia with fumonisins B1 and B2, as well as the results of this study show the need for continuous monitoring of fumonisins B1 and B2 in maize.