Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Extruded Commercial Cat Food

Abstract

The occurrence of the most important mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, fumonisin B₁ and B₂, aflatoxins B₁, B₂, G₁, and G₂, ochratoxin A, zearalenone, T-2, and HT-2 toxins) was determined in 64 extruded cat foods purchased in Italy through ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Deoxynivalenol and fumonisins were the most common contaminants (quantified in 80 and 95% of the samples, respectively). Conversely, aflatoxins B₂, G₁, and G₂ were not identified in any sample. Some cat foods exceeded the regulatory limit for aflatoxin B₁ (n = 3) or the guidance values for zearalenone (n = 3), fumonisins (n = 2), ochratoxin A (n = 1), and T-2 (n = 1) recently established for pets in the European Union. A widespread co-occurrence of mycotoxins was observed (28, 42, and 8% of the samples contained quantifiable amounts of two, three, and four mycotoxins, respectively). This study describes criticisms regarding the mycotoxin issue in pet food and suggests an improvement of the monitoring of the pet food chain.

Figure 1

Samples of commercial dry cat food that did not comply with the current EU legislation concerning mycotoxin contamination.