WEBINAR

Food Safety: Determination of Mycotoxins in food by LC-MS/MS

Introduction

Mycotoxins in feed, crops, and various foods are known to pose a serious health hazard to both livestock and humans. They are produced by fungi as toxic secondary metabolites. Grains, maize, and cereals are particularly vulnerable. With an estimated 25% of all crops showing some sign of mycotoxin contamination, many countries have established regulatory guidelines for maximum mycotoxin limits in feed, cereals and processed food products, particularly cereals and baby food. In 2020, the European Commission asked EFSA to update their risk assessment especially on ochratoxin A (OTA) in food. Fungi of the genus Aspergillus and Penicillium produce OTA, which can be found as a contaminant in various foods. OTA causes kidney toxicity in different animal species and kidney tumors in rodents.

The current regulatory limits require a reliable and robust LC-MS/MS method for monitoring a range of mycotoxins, including aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2, and M1; ochratoxin A; HT-2 and T-2 toxins; fumonisins B1 and B2 Deoxynivalenol and Zearalenone.

This webinar will present insights into risk assessment along with solutions for performing selective, sensitive and compliant analysis. A focus will be given to methods for sample preparation and liquid chromatography separation coupled with laminar flow tandem mass spectrometry (MS) for the detection and quantitation of mycotoxins in food samples.