Quantitative assessment of exposure to the mycotoxin Ochratoxin A in food.

This article presents the methodology and the simulation results concerning the quantitative assessment of exposure to the fungus toxin named Ochratoxin A (OA) in food, in humans in France. We show that is possible to provide reliable calculations of exposure to OA with the conjugate means of a nonparametric-type method of simulation, a parametric-type method of simulation, and the use of bootstrap confidence intervals. In the context of the Monte Carlo simulation, the nonparametric method takes into account the consumptions and the contaminations in the simulations only via the raw data whereas the parametric method depends on the random samplings from distribution functions fitted to consumption and contamination data. Our conclusions are based on eight types of food only. Nevertheless, they are meaningful due to the major importance of these foodstuffs in human nourishment in France. This methodology can be applied whatever the food contaminant (pesticides, other mycotoxins, Cadmium, etc.) when data are available.