ABATEMENT OF OCHRATOXIN A FROM CONTAMINATED WINE AND GRAPE JUICE BY ACTIVATED CARBON ADSORPTION

The ochratoxin A (OTA) is an organic and toxic for man compound, generated by fungi usually present in the vineyards. This compound can be found in grape and its derivative products. In this article, activated carbon from grape stalk was used as an adsorbent to reduce the concentration of OTA in wine and grape must. The adsorption tests were carried out following the same procedure for wine and must. This procedure consisted in adding OTA to the samples; three aliquots were taken from them, putting each one in contact with different amounts of activated carbon. In each of the tests, the concentration of OTA was determined at 30, 60 and 120 minutes by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Satisfying results were obtained, reducing OTA levels by 80% in wine and 96% in must, when 100 mg of carbon were used during 2 hours of contact. The influence of contacting with activated carbon on the color of wine was analyzed by spectrophotometry. Neither of the analyzed samples showed a significant variation on color.