Max limit for Ochratoxin A in pulse
I am having difficulty finding the maximum limit of OTA for pulse (dry edible beans) in EU. EU regulations have established maximum limits for cereals but not for dry beans. The maximum limit is not set but our European customer claims it to have elevated number of OTA in our product. They adopted limit of 0.5 ppb that has not been included in the product specifications or contract. Do EU regulations have any limit for OTA if not listed in directives?
I assume you're aware that the relevant regulation has recently changed, but if not, it's worth noting that Regulation (EC) 1881/2006 has been repealed by the new Regulation (EU) 2023/915: https://eur-lex.euro...ELEX:32023R0915
Aside from very specific cases (e.g. soybeans) I'm not aware of a general limit for this contaminant that would be applicable to beans.
The 0.5μg/kg limit your customer has advised is extremely low though, with the limit for e.g. unprocessed cereal grains being 10x higher. IIRC the only category that has a limit this low is the groups for baby food applications. Is it possible that your customer is using for these types of products and forgot to tell you this was a requirement? (I've had this happen a few times...).
Aside from regulations, there are some industry associations who sometimes set additional contaminant levels for categories not covered by EU limits, but I'm not active in this type of product area so wouldn't be able to comment on whether that might apply here. As with the potential baby food thing, the onus would really be on your customer to tell you in advance if this is a requirement, otherwise how would you know that you're expected to build it into your specification?
Yes I am aware that the relevant regulation has recently changed, As I mentioned before dry edible beans are not listed in the new regulation. Customer's product specification in the section for mycotoxins says "According to the EC regulations of allowed maximum contents for the definite contaminants in food products." The limit of 0.5 ppb is indeed very low, I do not have any information if our product would be a potential baby food and why this level is set so low. Thanks for your comment, now I need to bug my customer.