Mycotoxins Contamination Analysis
Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins and secondary metabolites that are produced by certain species of fungi (molds). There are a variety of different mycotoxins that have been identified. Fungi can form mycotoxins on a variety of foods including cereals, fruits, nuts, and coffee beans. The foods can be contaminated with mycotoxins during pre-harvest stage and also the post-harvest period as well as the poor storage conditions. The optimal conditions for the production of mycotoxins by fungi are usually mild and moist environment. Mycotoxins can occur in agricultural crops and food products through different contamination pathways during production, storage, and processing. Most mycotoxins are relatively stable in foodstuffs and cannot be degraded during cooking or food processing. The exposure to mycotoxins can be from the consumption of foods that are contaminated with mycotoxins, or indirectly from animals that are fed with contaminated feeds. The mycotoxin contamination has become a worldwide issue and can cause impacts on economic losses and foreign trade.
Figure 1. Analysis of mycotoxins
Most mycotoxins are toxic and have significant health impacts on humans and animals. Some mycotoxins could have acute effects and symptoms of severe illness after the consumption of contaminated foodstuffs. Other mycotoxins have long-term effects on human health such as immunotoxic effect and induction of cancer. They may also cause the damage to DNA as a mutagen and cancer in animal studies. Mycotoxins have different degrees of toxicity based on the amount of mycotoxin contamination, the exposure time and physiological state.
The detection and quantification of mycotoxins in foods and animal feeds is a key step to control the food contamination associated with mycotoxins, reducing the health risk to the general public and the economic loss. It is necessary and important to have advanced techniques and platforms to measure different mycotoxins in food and animal feed samples.
There is an array of techniques or platforms to choose from for the analysis of mycotoxins. The factors that affect the selected approach for the analysis include the complexity of food matrices, the characteristics of the mycotoxin of interest, and the detection limit of the method. Current methods for mycotoxin analysis usually include sample extraction and purification steps to get the pure target analyst and a detection step using appropriate instruments. The examples of commonly used techniques for the analysis of mycotoxins are the following:
Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has become a widely used and well-established method for the analysis of mycotoxins with the development of the last decade. This method offers high selectivity and sensitivity. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is also a commonly used method for mycotoxin analysis if mycotoxins are sufficiently volatile or can be converted into volatile derivatives at the column temperature. GC-MS can also provide high sensitivity and analysis performance.
Alfa Chemistry strictly complies with the quality assurance/quality control plan and regulatory requirements of each country and region to provide support to you, including but not limited to the following criteria and methods:
- ISO
- FDA/BAM
- ASTM
- AOAC
- EC 1935/2004
- LFGB
- DGCCRF
- DM 21/03/1973
- JFSL
- GB/T & SN
- UAE.S / GSO 2231: 2012
Our services for mycotoxin contamination analysis:
Analysis workflow:
Figure 2. Mycotoxins analysis workflow
Our company provides a variety of different services to meet the customers' need for the analysis of mycotoxin contamination. We provide full analysis services including sample preparation and extraction, chemical identification and detection, data analysis and customized analysis. We have strong experience working with different regulations and standards of mycotoxins contamination analysis.
Not intended for personal food safety testing.
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