HPLC investigation of hidden danger deoxynivalenol (vomitoxin) in baby foods from grain sources in Türkiye

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) declared that at minimum, one quarter of the earth’s food supply is infected with mycotoxins. Deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most common Fusarium mycotoxin in maize, wheat, rice oats, and barley. The goal of this study is to explore the incidence of DON in cerealbased baby foods in Turkey by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with C18 column and UV detector at 220 nm. The results were statistically significant (p< 0.05) in terms of standard deviation (in parallel analysis). The highest amount of detected DON in baby foods was 0.17 ppm. The samples with DON by HPLC were also confirmed with LC-MS detection (positive and negative mode). Forty-eight commercial cereal-based baby foods were analyzed, and four samples were contaminated (8.3%). DON analysis results show that baby foods containing cereal sources sold in Turkish markets are a significant threat for human health and baby health.