Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most important mycotoxins that contaminate a broad range of agricultural and food products. In this study, the occurrence of OTA in available brands of grape juice in Iran purchased from retail outlets or producer were determined for the first time using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with immunoaffinity columns(IAC) as the clean-up step. The average recoveries for OTA in grape juice ranged from 54.2 to 86.6% with the coefficient of variation lower than 17.3% in lowest spiked level (0.5 µg/L). The estimated LOD and LOQ of OTA were 0.04 µg/L and 0.125 µg/L, respectively. In our study, 70 samples of grape juice evaluated for OTA content. The results showed that in 39 out of 70 samples (55.7%) OTA levels were above the LOQ with the maximum level of 2.6 µg/L and the mean contamination was 0.5 µg/L. Although the mean contamination of OTA in analyzing samples was lower than the MRL set by EU, the high incidence of contamination in these products is worried. Considering the importance of OTA in public health, control of pre- and post-harvest, storage and grape juice manufacturing process, such as HACCP, GAP, and GMP recommended preventive measures are required.
Keywords: Grape juice; High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); Iran; Maximum Residue level (MRL); Ochratoxin A (OTA).