Simultaneous determination and occurrence assessment of 55 mycotoxins in tea and spices using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry.

Multi-mycotoxin occurrence was investigated in samples of teas and spices marketed in Bangkok, Thailand, to protect consumer health. To date, the investigation of mycotoxins in teas and spices has become an important issue worldwide. Therefore, 120 tea samples consisting of 40 samples each of green tea, oolong tea, and black tea, and 300 samples consisting of 30 samples each of black pepper, white pepper, cardamom, coriander seed, cinnamon, cumin, chili powder, nutmeg, star anise, and turmeric powder, were sampled from markets in Bangkok, Thailand. The samples were extracted using a QuEChERS-like (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe) approach and the targeted 55 mycotoxins in the tea and spice samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry. The results identified various levels of positive mycotoxin contamination in the tea and spice samples, with a variety of mycotoxins identified. The incidence levels of the mycotoxin contamination varied among the different types of tea and spice samples, excluding the black tea samples. Mycotoxins were detectable in all the collected black pepper and cinnamon samples. Beauvericin, an emerging mycotoxin, was the most common in the contaminated spice samples tested. There were co-contamination of two to five mycotoxins in spices, but not found in tea samples. The current results suggested that key and emerging mycotoxins should be identified. However, the mycotoxins in tea and spices commercialized in Thailand have somewhat low incidence levels, although some positive samples were greater than the regulatory limits set by the European Union or Thailand. Further studies are needed with larger sample sizes to confirm these as acceptable levels.