Occurrence of fumonisins (B1, B 2, B 3) in maize-based food and feed samples from Indonesia.

A survey to evaluate the contamination level of total fumonisins in maize-based foodstuffs, maize and feed from Indonesia is described. The analyses were carried out by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Samples were collected from local retail stores around Yogyakarta, Indonesia between February and May 2001. The 101 samples were classified into six categories, i.e. industrially-produced food (n=24), products of small food manufacturers (n=17), maize flour (n=4), maize for food (n=9), maize for feed (n17), and formulated feed (n30). Control of the method showed that the detection limit was 8.7 µg/kg and repeatability is shown by relative standard deviation (RSD) of analyses of contaminated maize (n=5) of 10 %. Results of analyses indicate that 80 samples analysed were contaminated over a large range from 10.0-3307 pg/kg, and the concentration of fumonisins depended on the type of sample. Of four samples of maize flour, none were contaminated (below detection limit). Of 24 samples of industrially produced food, 14 were contaminated in the range 22.8 - 105 µg/kg and 18 of 19 food samples from small manufacturers were contaminated ranging from 12.9 to 234 µg/kg. The highest contamination was observed in maize samples: six of ten samples of maize for food were contaminated between 68.0 - 2471 µg/kg and 16 of 17 samples for feed contained fumonisins over a large range from 17.6 to 3306 µg/kg.