Purpose: In view of high grain consumption, the presence of mycotoxins entails a high risk for acute and chronic exposure to mycotoxins.
Methods: In silico analysis of data in the scientific literature, datamining in the RASFF database, and official monitoring data were used in this review.
Results: The most striking example are aflatoxins; total prevalence was 54.5% (n=3,246) and 32.4% of the samples exceeded the EU limits during this period. Similar results were obtained for T-2/HT-2 (n=432), deoxynivalenol (n=2,816), fumonisins (n=429), zearalenone (n=638) and ochratoxin A (n=609) with prevalences of 40.5%, 41.9%, 66.4%, 35.1%, and 30.2%, respectively. For these mycotoxins, the EU limits were less frequently exceeded. The increased incidence of mycotoxins in Serbian grain matrices is thought to be caused by more favourable environmental conditions in combination with the use of more sensitive immunosorbent assays and chromatography methods.
Significance: The available information reviewed in this paper, showed low and moderate incidences and prevalences of mycotoxins in food and feed in Serbia; the exceptions being 2012, a drought year, and 2014, a flood year. The number of samples that were above limits set by EU legislation was relatively low. Relatively higher numbers of positive samples, in recent studies, were due to advances in detection techniques. A relatively low number of analyzed samples hampers reliable estimates of mycotoxins prevalence and concentration in certain food and feed commodities.