Mycotoxins Analysis in Cereals and Related Foodstuffs by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Techniques

Abstract

In the entire world, cereals and related foodstuffs are used as an important source of energy, minerals, and vitamins. Nevertheless, their contamination with mycotoxins kept special attention due to harmful effects on human health. The present paper was conducted to evaluate published studies regarding the identification and characterization of mycotoxins in cereals and related foodstuffs by liquid chromatography coupled to (tandem) mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) techniques. For sample preparation, published studies based on the development of extraction and clean-up strategies including solid-phase extraction, solid-liquid extraction, and immunoaffinity columns, as well as on methods based on minimum clean-up (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS)) technology, are examined. LC-MS/MS has become the golden method for the simultaneous multimycotoxin analysis, with different sample preparation approaches, due to the range of different physicochemical properties of these toxic products. Therefore, this new strategy can be an alternative for fast, simple, and accurate determination of multiclass mycotoxins in complex cereal samples.

Ergot Alkaloids Mycotoxins in Cereals and Cereal-Derived Food Products: Characteristics, Toxicity, Prevalence, and Control Strategies

“…Cereals and related foodstuff are rich in nutrients and energy, and for this reason they play an important role in the diet. The abundance of nutrients contained in cereals such as fat, protein and minerals are also favorite nutrients for the growth of toxin-producing fungal species [1][2][3][4][5]. Crops and especially cereals can be infected in both pre-harvest and post-harvest stage by phytopathogenic fungi [2], with many factors being responsible for their contamination such as temperature, water activity, and substrate composition [6].…”

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“…New findings demonstrate that T-2 toxin is commonly found in cereals in Europe, and that all newly detected F. langsethiae strains have been reported from Europe, T-2 toxin production in the atypical strain F. langsethiae, which was discovered in prior research of preserved wheat, was further detected in these experiments [24]. The permissible T-2 toxin recovery percent has been indicated at the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) as 60-110 % for more than 0.25 g/gr, 60-120 % for less than 0.25 g/gr [25].…”

Multi-Mycotoxin Method Development Using Ultra-High Liquid Chromatography with Orbitrap High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Detection in Breakfast Cereals from the Campania Region, Italy

“…The analysis of mycotoxins contained in breakfast cereals has been carried out through liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which is considered the gold-standard analytical technique for food contaminants [ 15 ]. Nevertheless, sample preparation can be very variable across studies depending on the targeted mycotoxins, availability of samples, etc.…”