A design of experiments approach to studying deoxynivalenol and deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside evolution throughout industrial production of wholegrain crackers exploiting LC-MS/MS techniques

Abstract

Fusarium mycotoxins represent a significant problem in the cereal supply chain, with wheat, maize and barley being the main contaminated crops. Among the Fusarium toxins, the trichothecene deoxynivalenol (DON) is considered to be the most important contaminant in wheat due to its widespread occurrence. To protect consumers from unacceptably high trichothecene intakes in their diets, many countries have set maximum trichothecene levels for cereals and related food commodities. Relatively few studies have considered the loss of trichothecenes during industrial processing and focused on how processing steps may influence their degradation or modification. The aim of the present study is to verify how the DON and deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (DON-3G) concentration in wholegrain crackers can be influenced by changes to the technological parameters employed during the fermentation and baking steps, starting with naturally contaminated bran, using a pilot-scale plant and exploiting the power of the Design of Experiments (DoE) approach. The DON results were then used to generate a preliminary predictive model, suggesting that the baking step represents the most important phase in minimising the native toxin level in crackers.