Avaliação da incerteza analítica no limite tolerável para atender legislação referente a deoxinivalenol em farinha de trigo

Abstract

Wheat is one of the most produced winter crops in the Brazil. The main use of grain is in the form of flour, the basic ingredient for food production. Wheat grain, at field level, can be contaminated with the disease called fusariose, caused by fungi of the genus Fusarium, which can produce mycotoxins as products of its secondary metabolism. Among these mycotoxins, deoxynivalenol (DON), is the most prevalent mycotoxin. Because, it is a matter of human and animal health, many countries stipulate Maximum Tolerated Limits (LMT) for wheat and its by-products. Based on this, the objective of the work was to evaluate the analytical uncertainty regarding the LMT of DON in wheat flour, stipulated by the current legislation RDC 138/2017. The uncertainty was evaluated with wheat flour samples, with results of Quantification Limit (LQ) LQ<200 for DON. The samples were extracted and analyzed seven times for three consecutive days. The result of the analytical measurement uncertainty found, based on the LMT stipulated by the legislation of 750 μg.kg-1, was 83.60 μg.kg-1. From this result, 32 wheat flour samples were selected and analyzed at the Laboratory for Mycotoxicologic Analysis (LAMIC), from April to June 2020, whose analytical results of DON were between 600 and 900 μg.kg-1. Of these, 19 samples were within the uncertainty range found in the study. With this, we can conclude how important it is to evaluate the uncertainty of the LMTs proposed by the legislation, in order to ensure the quality of the food that is offered to the consumer.