multiple mycotoxin determination on tunisian cereals-based food and evaluation of the population exposure

Twenty-two mycotoxins were investigated in bread and biscuits samples (n = 115) purchased from tunisia. deoxynivalenol (don), enniatin b (enb), enb1, and zearalenone (zea) occurred in the samples with enb detected in all the samples. whole bread was the most contaminated matrix showing the highest amounts of don (25.2 ng/g), enb (10.7 ng/g), and enb1 (5.4 ng/g). however, biscuits showed a maximum level of zea (1.08 ng/g). co-occurrence were also evaluated, 65% of biscuit samples were contaminated by three mycotoxins simultaneously (don + enb + enb1) and the most frequent combination (don + enb) co-occurred in 83% of the white bread samples and 78% of the whole bread samples. don dietary exposure was estimated to be 15.2 and 11 ng/kg bw/day for bread and biscuits, respectively for adults. while for children, 38.7 and 81 ng/kg bw/day, respectively. however, no real health risk was found, and children are having up to 12% of the tolerable daily intake (tdi) of don and adults up to 2.6% of the don tdi through the consumption of both cereal products.