Red mould rice (angkak) - Analysis and detection in meat products

Fungi of the genus Monascus cultured on rice produce appealing red, orange and yellow compounds; red mould rice obtained from such cultures is therefo re used as a food colourant in east Asian countries. It has recently also b een advertised in European countries, its use however is illegal in Germany . Red mould rice contains, in addition to colourants, numerous additional c omponents with yet unknown properties. Therefore, an HPLC technique was dev eloped for the analysis of red mould rice. Laboratory cultures of Monascus purpureus DSM1379 on a rice medium contained 600-800 mg/kg of the mycotoxin citrinin. Commercial samples of red mould rice contained lower amounts of citrinin, < 50 mg/kg, they differed considerably with regard to colouring a nd other constituents. A simple assay for the monitoring of red mould rice in meat products is described; it uses the main yellow colourants monascin and ankaflavin as indicators. Preliminary data suggest that red mould rice is only sporadically used in the production of meat products but more frequ ently in vegetarian sausage-type products. Because of the potential formati on of citrinin, high variability of commercial samples and insufficient dat a for these complex mixtures the safety of red mould rice as a food additiv e is considered problematic.