The U.S. Grains Council, in its recently released fifth annual Corn Harvest Quality Report, said the 2015 U.S. corn crop showed lower incidences of mycotoxins than the previous year’s harvest. The report focused on aflatoxins and deoxynivalenol (DON) in the 185 samples that were analyzed.
1. Aflatoxins
- 99.5 percent of the 185 samples had no detectable levels of aflatoxins.
- 0.5 percent of the 185 samples showed aflatoxin levels greater than or equal to the LOD of 2.5 ppb, but less than 5 ppb.
- 0 samples showed aflatoxin levels greater than or equal to 5 ppb, but less than 10 ppb.
- 0 samples showed aflatoxin levels greater than or equal to 10 ppb, but less than or equal to the FDA action level of 20 ppb.
- 100 percent of the 185 samples were below or equal to the FDA action level of 20 ppb.
2. DON (deoxynivalenol or vomitoxin)
- 87 percent of the 185 samples tested less than 0.5 ppm.
- 13.0 percent of the 185 samples tested greater than or equal to 0.5 ppm, but less than or equal to the FDA advisory level of 5 ppm.
- All 185 samples tested below or equal to the FDA advisory level of 5 ppm.
- The samples that tested below 0.5 ppm (87.0 percent) is higher than 2014 (80.2 percent) and lower than 2013 (91.6 percent).
- 100 percent of the samples tested at or below 5 ppm, which is the same as was observed in 2014 and 2013.
