“Our paper on Greek domestic wines (and raisins) consists of the first serious contribution from Greece to this European project, and is a useful data bank for ongoing research efforts.”

The European Union requires each country to carry out systematic measurements of OTA levels in domestic and imported wines in order to propose the lowest possible concentration limits of OTA in wine. Our paper on Greek domestic wines (and raisins) consists of the first serious contribution from Greece to this European project, and is a useful data bank for ongoing research efforts. By analyzing 268 locally produced commercial wines during the years 1995-1999 and using statistical methods, we concluded that about 40% of the total number of dry wines show no detectable OTA concentrations, whereas only 11.5% of all surveyed Greek wines (mostly sweet wines and retsina) contain OTA concentration ≥ 1.00 μg/l. Moreover, our data show a tendency of increasing OTA contamination in red dry wines from northern to southern Greece, but not for white and rose dry wines. The daily OTA intake for the dry wines of the present survey, under normal consumption, contributes only a minor fraction to the maximum tolerable daily intakes.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a secondary metabolite of various genera of Aspergillus and Penicillium that has been found as a frequent contaminant in several food (cereal, maize, rice, beans, nuts, raisins), beverages (coffee, milk, grape juice, wine), and feed commodities. OTA exhibits multi-facetted toxicity in animals and human populations, including nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, immunotoxic, teratogenic, and carcinogenic effects. Therefore, it represents a serious health risk to livestock and people. For this reason, food organizations recommend lowering the levels of OTA present in food commodities to the lowest value technologically feasible, and demand the development of simple, sensitive, and more accurate analytical techniques for trace-level monitoring and quantification of OTA. In studies concerning the intake of OTA by populations within the European Union, wine is considered the second major source of intake—corresponding to ~10%. Also, raisins are considered as a potential source of OTA with a total intake of ~3%. Since wine is a natural product very important to the European economy and population with proven health benefits, it is mandatory to assure that it is free of harmful contaminants such as OTA.

For several years in the past, I was involved mostly in basic research using NMR spectroscopy—structure determination of natural products, dynamics of synthetic and natural polymers—until 1998, when I decided to switch into the more appealing field of food science. My current research involves (a) conformational analysis of OTA to draw conclusions about the formation of intra-molecular hydrogen bonding and to contribute to the efforts of understanding the toxic mechanism of this mycotoxin, (b) structure determination of various mycotoxins by employing NMR spectroscopy in an attempt to unravel the structure-toxicity relationship, and (c) quality control and authentication of virgin olive oil.