Frequent Dietary Multi-Mycotoxin Exposure in UK Children and Its Association with Dietary Intake.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Repeated-measures observational biomonitoring study (Level 4 case-series / panel study)
PubMed 38922145 · doi:10.3390/toxins16060251
What was done
Four repeat urine samples (total n = 114) and concurrent food diaries were collected from 29 UK children (13 boys, 16 girls, aged 2.4–6.8 years). Urine samples underwent enzymatic hydrolysis, immunoaffinity column enrichment, and LC-MS/MS quantification for 11 mycotoxins, including deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), T-2/HT-2 toxins, zearalenone (ZEN), ochratoxin A (OTA), and aflatoxins. Food diaries were evaluated with WinDiet software to quantify high-risk food consumption. Biomonitoring data were used to calculate daily excretion, evaluate dietary associations, and estimate exceedances of tolerable daily intakes (TDI) and Margins of Exposure (MoE).
What was found
The most prevalent mycotoxins in urine were DON (95.6%), OTA (88.6%), HT-2 toxin (53.5%), ZEN (48.2%), and NIV (26.3%). Co-exposure to three or more mycotoxins occurred in 66% of samples. Average daily urinary excretion ranged from 12.10 µg/d for DON to 0.03 µg/d for OTA. Total cereal consumption was strongly positively associated with urinary DON and T-2/HT-2 levels, while oat consumption was specifically associated with T-2/HT-2. Estimated intake exceeded the TDI in 34.2% of samples for DON, 14.9% for T-2/HT-2, 5.2% for ZEN, and 4.4% for NIV. Mean daily OTA intake produced a Margin of Exposure of 65 for non-neoplastic lesions.
Why it matters
This study provides direct biomonitoring evidence that young children in the UK frequently experience concurrent dietary exposure to multiple fungal toxins, with a substantial fraction of exposure events exceeding safety thresholds primarily due to cereal and oat consumption.
Limits
The sample size was small (29 children), limiting generalizability across broader populations. Dietary exposure relied on parent-reported food diaries, introducing potential recall or estimation errors. The study assessed biomarker excretion rather than clinical toxicity endpoints or long-term health outcomes.
Cited by
- context Approximately 25 percent of mycotoxins detected in human testing originate from dietary food sources.