Determination of mycotoxins in foods: current state of analytical methods and limitations

Abstract

Mycotoxins are natural contaminants produced by a range of fungal species. Their common occurrence in food and feed poses a threat to the health of humans and animals. This threat is caused either by the direct contamination of agricultural commodities or by a "carry-over" of mycotoxins and their metabolites into animal tissues, milk, and eggs after feeding of contaminated hay or corn. As a consequence of their diverse chemical structures and varying physical properties, mycotoxins exhibit a wide range of biological effects. Individual mycotoxins can be genotoxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, teratogenic, and oestrogenic. To protect consumer health and to reduce economic losses, surveillance and control of mycotoxins in food and feed has become a major objective for producers, regulatory authorities and researchers worldwide. However, the variety of chemical structures makes it impossible to use one single technique for mycotoxin analysis. Hence, a vast number of analytical methods has been developed and validated. The heterogeneity of food matrices combined with the demand for a fast, simultaneous and accurate determination of multiple mycotoxins creates enormous challenges for routine analysis. The most crucial issues will be discussed in this review. These are (1) the collection of representative samples, (2) the performance of classical and emerging analytical methods based on chromatographic or immunochemical techniques, (3) the validation of official methods for enforcement, and (4) the limitations and future prospects of the current methods.

Scientific Opinion on the risks for human and animal health related to the presence of modified forms of certain mycotoxins in food and feed

“…However, the application of antibody-driven systems to modified mycotoxin detection is still poor. Antibodies developed against the parent mycotoxin can potentially cross-react with modified forms if the epitope is not sterically hindered by the metabolism (Köppen et al, 2010). Only a few studies on the evaluation of ELISA for the recognition of modified mycotoxins have been performed, probably on account of the unavailability of analytical standards from the market (Dzuman et al, 2014).…”

Food Analysis: Present, Future, and Foodomics

“…As mentioned above, the everyday more exigent demands on food safety are bringing about a tremendous development in analytical instruments and methodologies to analyze foodborne pathogens [77] and contaminants [78][79][80], or the effect of food processing on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables [81]. Good examples of the tremendous work devoted to these issues are the analysis of mycotoxins in foods [82,83], the analysis of other toxin-like compounds as, for instance, sterigmatocystin, a toxic metabolite closely related to aflatoxins, and produced by the fungi Aspergillus nidulans and A. versicolor that has been found in different foods [84]. Another important issue is the analysis of antibiotics in foods [85], including different legal aspects related to their determination and subsequent validation of the analytical methodologies [86].…”

Mycotoxin Analysis: New Proposals for Sample Treatment

“…The most common methodology implies solid-liquid extraction (SLE) followed by solid phase extraction (SPE) with immunoaffinity columns (IACs), which contain specific antibodies to the analyte of interest [10]. Several reviews present an overview of the different methodologies proposed for the determination of mycotoxins in food including the most frequent sample treatments [12,[27][28][29][30].…”