Reduction of ochratoxin A in direct steam injected oat-based infant cereals with baking soda

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a possible human carcinogen with its potent nephrotoxicity and has been found in many agricultural commodities particularly in oats and its processed foods including oat-based infant cereals. While OTA is stable under most thermal processing conditions, alkaline pH can increase the reduction of OTA. In this study, the effect of direct steam injection (DSI) process along with the absence and presence baking soda (0.5% and 1% of solid contents) on the reduction of OTA in oat-based infant cereals was investigated. Food-grade oat flour was spiked with OTA (100 μg/kg) and equilibrated overnight followed by preparation of slurry by adding water to reach 5% solid content. Then the slurry was processed by DSI at 85 °C and 121 °C followed by spray drying at 210 °C. Greater reduction of OTA in DSI processed oat-based infant cereals was observed at higher process temperature to result in 20-28% reduction. In addition, the reduction of OTA increased with increasing amounts of baking soda. These results suggest that OTA may be reduced significantly by DSI process, which can be applied to commercial production of oat-based infant cereals. Baking soda may also help to reduce OTA amount in cereal-based infant cereals during thermal processing.