Evaluation of Mycotoxin Residues on Ready-to-Eat Food by Chromatographic Methods Coupled to Mass Spectrometry in Tandem

Abstract

Simultaneous determination of twenty-seven mycotoxins in ready-to-eat food samples using “Quick Easy Cheap Rough and Safe” (QuEChERS) extraction and chromatographic methods coupled to mass spectrometry in tandem is described in this study. Mycotoxins included in this survey were aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2), enniatins (A, A1, B, B1), beauvericin (BEA), fumonisins (FB1, FB2), sterigmatocystin (STG), deoxynivalenol (DON), 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3-ADON), 15-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (15-ADON), nivalenol (NIV), neosolaniol (NEO), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), fusarenon-X (FUS-X), zearalenone (ZEA), α-zearalanol (αZAL), β-zearalenone (βZAL), α-zearalenol (αZOL), β-zearalenol (βzol), T2, and HT-2 toxin. The method showed satisfactory extraction results with recoveries ranging from 63 to 119% for the different food matrix samples. Limits of detection (LODS) and quantification (LOQs) were between 0.15–1.5 µg/kg and 0.5–5 µg/kg, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of 25 ready-to-eat food samples. Results showed presence of deoxynivalenol at 36% of samples (2.61–21.59 µg/kg), enniatin B at 20% of samples (9.83–86.32 µg/kg), HT-2 toxin at 16% of samples (9.06–34.43 µg/kg), and aflatoxin G2 at 4% of samples (2.84 µg/kg). Mycotoxins were detected mainly in ready-to-eat food samples prepared with cereals, vegetables, and legumes, even at levels below those often obtained from raw food.

A Review on the Synthesis and Bioactivity Aspects of Beauvericin, a Fusarium Mycotoxin

“…Because this fungi often contaminate food, feedstock, and animal feed, BEA is a risk factor for environmental health. Although the cereal-based food and feed contamination of Fusaria is huge, and although BEA is regularly found in these products (Hietaniemi et al, 2016 ; Svingen et al, 2017 ; Beccari et al, 2018 ; Carballo et al, 2018 ), the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM Panel, 2014 ) concluded that acute exposure to BEA and ENNs do not indicate concern for human health.…”

Aptamer-Based Detection of Fumonisin B1: A Systematic Comparison with Conventional and Other Novel Methods

“…Fluorescence detectors are restricted for the individual quantification of FB1 [38,46,47], the sum of FB1, FB2, FB3 [41] or the separate determination of up to three group B fumonisins [42,55]. On the other hand, one of the main advantages of mass spectrometry detectors is the possibility of performing multiplex analysis, not only for different mycotoxins [48,49,50,53,54,57,58,59,60,61,64,65,66,67,71,72,73,74,77,79,80,187], but also when combined with varied metabolites. Growth regulators, antibiotics, pesticides [51,70,75], and other fungal metabolites [63,68], were simultaneously identified in analysis capable of assessing up to 74 and 90 compounds [62,78].…”

“…Yet, the use of specific IS and a validated method for a single matrix, could reduce the scope of the determination, and increase its final cost. Notwithstanding, some approaches proposed the application of the aforementioned procedures combined with clean up techniques and QuEChERS, for a greater method validation [58,69,71,73].…”

Improved Sample Selection and Preparation Methods for Sampling Plans Used to Facilitate Rapid and Reliable Estimation of Aflatoxin in Chicken Feed

“…Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), the most toxic and prevalent [ 2 ], is a potent human carcinogen [ 6 ]. Aflatoxins are moderately stable under normal cooking and industrial processing procedures [ 4 , 7 , 8 ]. There have been reports of acute human and animal aflatoxicosis outbreaks resulting in deaths [ 9 , 10 ] and widespread exposure to chronic dietary aflatoxins [ 2 , 11 ].…”