Occurrence of ochratoxin A in Australian wine

Abstract

A survey of 601 samples of Australian wine for the presence of ochratoxin A (OA) was undertaken. The study sampled predominantly bottled wines, approximately equal numbers of red and white wines, wines made from a range of grape varieties and wines from all the major producing areas and some of the minor ones. A validated HPLC assay that did not utilise expensive immunoaffinity columns was developed for quantifying OA in wine, with limits of detection and quantification of 0.02 and 0.05 μg/L respectively. OA was detected in 90 (15.0%) of the 601 samples, but at uniformly low levels, with 85% of positive samples containing less than 0.2 μg/L OA. Only one sample exceeded 0.5 μg/L OA and no sample exceeded 1.0 μg/L OA. No region of Australia appeared more or less likely to produce wines containing OA.