Occurrence of ochratoxin A (OTA) in wines: influence of the type of wine and its geographical origin

TLDR

The study compiled data from over 850 wine samples, combining literature and new analyses, to comprehensively assess OTA contamination. OTA contamination is highest in red wines (54%) and in southern regions (95% of red wines), whereas white wines show only 25% contamination.

Abstract

The results of more than 450 samples taken from the literature and 400 samples tested by our own investigations have been taken into account to quite extensively describe the situation of OTA contamination of wine. According to these data OTA is much more commonly detected in red wines than in rosé and white wines and the OTA concentration is remarkably higher than in the last two. Thus OTA could be detected in 25% of white wine samples whereas it was detected in 40% of rosé and 54% of red wine samples. The same result was found when comparing the wines from southern and northern regions. Here the red wine samples from the northern cultivating area showed a contamination of 12% in contrast to those from the southern area which showed a contamination of about 95%.