An effective approach to mitigating ochratoxin A (OTA) levels in wine with minor impact on wine quality

Ochratoxin A (OTA) levels in wine are well-documented, with red wines typically having the highest concentrations, followed by ros and white wines.In Europe, wine is the second-largest source of OTA intake after cereals.The maximum allowable OTA limit in wine is 2 g/L, according to Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006.While activated carbon shows potential for reducing OTA, its efficiency in wine, especially in red wine, is limited by the complexity of the wine matrix.In white wine, up to 98.3% OTA reduction was achieved with 1 g/L activated carbon.In red wines, the reduction ranged from 32% to 61%, depending on the physicochemical properties of the carbons.This study evaluates different enological deodorizing activated carbons for OTA removal, with a focus on their impact on wine quality.Complete OTA removal was achieved in white wines with most activated carbons, whereas only one type of carbon was effective in red wines, likely due to anthocyanins competing for adsorption sites.The results suggest that optimizing pore size distribution in activated carbon can effectively remove OTA from both white and red wines with minimal impact on wine color.