Natural Occurrence of T-2 Toxin in Domestic and Imported Rice

Abstract

Background: Rice is one of the crops, which are prone to be contaminated with toxigenic fungi and their mycotoxins. This study aimed to investigate the natural occurrence of T-2 toxin in domestic and imported rice in Iran.
Methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive study in winter 2007, 140 samples of imported rice (125 samples of Thai and 25 sam­ples of Pakistani rice) and 60 samples of Iranian rice were collected from warehouses of canteens of governmental of­fices in Tehran. After grinding and methanol extraction of the rice samples, the amount of T-2 toxin was measured using a sand­wich ELISA. INSTATA statistical software was used for data analysis.
Results: All samples of rice were more or less contaminated with T-2 toxin but the amount did not exceed the permissible limit. Mean contamination of domestic and imported rice was 11.2±2.3 and 13±2.7 µg/kg, respectively. Regarding imported rice, mean of contamination was 14.5±4.6 µg/kg for the Pakistani rice and 12.6±2.2 µg/kg for the Thai rice.  There was no signifi­cant difference between domestic and imported rice, nor did we find a meaningful difference among Iranian, Paki­stani and Thai rice regarding the amount of contamination (P= 0.2).
Conclusion:  Although the amount of contamination is less than the safe limit, the extent of natural occurrence of T-2 toxin in rice in Iran indicates that contamination occurs somewhere in the production process. This, in turn, necessitates screening of rice for contamination with mycotoxins from farm to table.