Deoxynivalenol (DON) in raw and cooked Pasta

29 pasta samples were purchased from retail shops in Berlin in April and May 2001 and were analysed for their content of Deoxynivalenol (DON). Since it is much more important for the consumer to know the level of contamination with this mycotoxin in the ready to eat pasta we determined DON additionally in the cooked pasta and cooking water. 90% of the raw samples contained less than 0.5mg DON/kg, but three out of 29 samples up to 0.84mg/kg. The amount of DON decreased during cooking, which resulted in 60-80% lower DON levels in the ready to eat products. DON was analysed by HPLC-DAD, confirmatory analyses were carried out by GC-MS after derivatization of the analyte.