Table 2.

Incidence and occurrence of OTA in different kinds of spices in Lebanon.

Spices	Samples analyzed (n)	Contamination level (μg/kg)
		Number (%) of samples exceeding MTL	Range of contamination	Mean ±SD
Sweet pepper	13	1 (7.7%)	0.47–44.22	15.08 ± 44.22
White pepper	10	8 (80%)	0.12–452.46	132.03 ± 141.79
Black pepper	9	6 (66.7%)	0.85–238.95	77.53 ± 89.08
Cinnamon	8	0	0.02–2.99	0.72 ± 0.95
Nutmeg	6	4 (66.7%)	1.39–236.26	68.05 ± 90.16
Turmeric	3	0	0.47–3.09	1.38 ± 1.50
Cumin	3	1 (33.3%)	0.12–31.99	11.11 ± 18.10
Paprika	4	0	0.13–3.62	1.36 ± 1.55
Spices mix	17	2 (11.7%)	0.49–79.45	9.33 ± 19.52
Total	73	22 (30.1%)	0.12–452.46	38.8 ± 80.5

MTL for OTA in spices indicated in this table is 15 μg/kg.