Abstract
Ochratoxin A (OTA) was discovered by South African scientists during screening for toxigenic fungi that were belonging to strains of Aspergillus ochraceus. In contrast to the discovery of the aflatoxins, which was promoted by Turkey X disease, OTA has been treated as unimportant at that time. However, OTA became increasingly more interested in after discovery of natural occurrence of OTA in corn in 1969.
OTA is a nephrotoxic and carcinogenic mycotoxin produced by Penicillium verrucosum in temperate or cold climate and a number of species of Aspergillus in tropical and subtropical area of the world, and is known to occur throughout the many kind of foods such as cereal, beans, coffee, cocoa, dried fruits, wine, beer, and spices. OTA has a half-life of about 35 days in humans, and was detected from human blood and breast milk, indicating a permanent dietary exposure.
Under these circumstances, recently, the importance of OTA was more and more reflected by the works on risk assessment by the international organization such as the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and European Union.
In this paper, several surveillances of natural occurrence of OTA in foods by the international organizations and several countries are described. The carcinogenicity and genotoxicity of OTA are also summarized.
