Associations Between Cereal-Based Food Consumption and Urinary Mycotoxin Biomarkers in a Hungarian Population

Abstract

Mycotoxins are common contaminants of the food and feed chain and have been associated with developmental disorders, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and various types of cancer. This study aimed to estimate dietary mycotoxin exposure in the Hungarian population and to identify the major cereal-based food contributors. Urinary mycotoxin concentrations were measured by LC–MS/MS, and population exposure was assessed using estimated daily intake (EDI) values. Associations between food consumption and urinary mycotoxin levels were evaluated using Spearman correlation analysis on urine samples collected in year 2018 and 2020. The average EDI values were below the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for all mycotoxins in both years, except for ochratoxin A in 2018. Distinct exposure patterns were observed between the two sampling years. In 2018, consumption of oats and oat-based products showed a moderate positive correlation with urinary fumonisin B2 levels (r(s) = 0.497, adjusted p = 0.001962350574942). In 2020, wheat and wheat-based product consumption correlated with urinary deoxynivalenol levels (r(s) = 0.6868, adjusted p = 0.009509496), while corn and corn-based product consumption correlated with urinary zearalenone levels (r(s) = 0.6137, adjusted p = 0.04134226737). These findings highlight differences in dietary mycotoxin exposure between the studied populations and sampling periods and emphasize the importance of human biomonitoring to identify major dietary mycotoxin sources/carriers and support exposure and risk assessment.