Highly sensitive lateral flow test with indirect labelling for zearalenone in baby food

Abstract

Maximum permissible levels of mycotoxins in baby food may be 1% of those in ordinary food. Therefore, highly sensitive methods of mycotoxin control are in demand. To detect such low amounts, expensive instrumental methods are commonly used. Advantages of immunochromatographic analyses are their low cost and simple sample preparation; however, their sensitivity needs to be increased to contend with instrumental methods. A scheme for competitive immunochromatography with indirect labelling was implemented and developed for the detection of mycotoxin zearalenone (ZEA). Two separate reagents were used for the assay, namely free specific antibodies and antispecies antibodies conjugated with gold nanoparticles. This made it possible to simultaneously increase the sensitivity of the assay and the reliability of measurements. The instrumental detection limit of ZEA in baby food was 5 pg/mL (100 pg/g). Thus, the sensitivity attained is comparable with liquid chromatography characteristics. The duration of the analysis was 17 min.

An Overview for the Nanoparticles‐Based Quantitative Lateral Flow Assay

“…Mycotoxin analysis is a topical issue and many researchers have reported various LFAs with different labels for the sensitive detection of mycotoxins. [ 145 ] Because these toxins are often present together in agricultural crops, they tend to be monitored simultaneously. [ 16,27a,63b,146 ] For example, Xiong's group [ 147 ] developed a dual‐signal‐based LFA for the multiplex detection of mycotoxins, which used a smartphone‐based device to integrate both visible‐light and fluorescence detection modes.…”

Gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow immunoassay for the rapid detection of flumetralin in orange

“…LFIA has been developed as a useful technique for the rapid and on-site screening of a variety of analytes. [25][26][27] To the best of our knowledge, there are few studies on the use of immunoassays for flumetralin detection. In this study, we prepared an mAb against flumetralin and developed a gold nanoparticle-based LFIA for the rapid determination of flumetralin in orange.…”