Regulated and emerging mycotoxins occurrence in plant-based beverages from the Italian market

This study aimed to optimize a salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) procedure combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of 19 mycotoxins in plant-based beverages. The targeted mycotoxins were aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2), alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), tentoxin (TEN), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), HT-2/T-2, ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), enniatins (ENNB, ENNB1, ENNA, ENNA1), and beauvericin (BEA). Satisfactory performance characteristics were obtained, with recoveries values > 70% and precision with RSD <20%. The methodology developed was applied to 96 commercial samples from Italy. All the samples analyzed contained at least one mycotoxin, and a particular incidence of non-regulated mycotoxins, mainly enniatins, BEA, and Alternaria toxins, was evidenced in all plant-based beverages. The contamination level ranged from 0.02 μg L−1 for BEA to 4.61 μg L−1 for DON. Overall, the present study contributes to providing comprehensive occurrence mycotoxin data in plant-based beverages, which is necessary for further evaluation of exposure and risk characterization.