Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of filamentous fungi affecting human and animal health. In the European Union harmonized maximum levels for the major mycotoxins occurring in food commodities have been fixed. Reliable analytical methods are therefore required to identify and determine mycotoxins at legislated levels and to enforce regulatory limits. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods are being largely used since they enable the simultaneous detection of different mycotoxins. Moreover, they offer several advantages in terms of selectivity, sensitivity, substantial reduction of sample treatment, simultaneous quantification and confirmation of analyte identity. Participation in laboratory proficiency testing (PT) is an essential elements of laboratory quality assurance programmes in relation to mycotoxins analysis. In addition PT can be a useful tool to evaluate the state-of-art of methods for mycotoxin analysis by comparison of laboratory's performances. A number of PT schemes for individual or group of structurally related mycotoxins exist at international level. Only recently the interest is moving toward the organization of PTs for multi-mycotoxin determination by LC-MS. In 2014 the Institute of Sciences of Food Production of the National Research Council of Italy organized an international PT to check, next to the laboratory performance, the state-of-art of currently used multi-mycotoxin methods and their implementation in the respective laboratory. Test materials were maize contaminated with aflatoxins B1 (AFB1), B2 (AFB2), G1 (AFG1) and G2 (AFG2), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisin B1 (FB1) and B2 (FB2), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEA), T-2 and HT-2 toxins, and wheat contaminated with DON, ZEA, T-2, HT-2 and OTA. Eighteen laboratories from 10 Countries using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methodologies participated in the study and returned results for various combinations of mycotoxins. The overall performance of participating laboratories and the assessment trend in multi-mycotoxin determination by LC-MS will be presented and discussed.
International Proficiency Testing as a tool to evaluate the state-of-art of LC-MS methods for multi-mycotoxin measurements
De Girolamo A;Pascale M;Ciasca B;Visconti A;
2015
Abstract
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of filamentous fungi affecting human and animal health. In the European Union harmonized maximum levels for the major mycotoxins occurring in food commodities have been fixed. Reliable analytical methods are therefore required to identify and determine mycotoxins at legislated levels and to enforce regulatory limits. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods are being largely used since they enable the simultaneous detection of different mycotoxins. Moreover, they offer several advantages in terms of selectivity, sensitivity, substantial reduction of sample treatment, simultaneous quantification and confirmation of analyte identity. Participation in laboratory proficiency testing (PT) is an essential elements of laboratory quality assurance programmes in relation to mycotoxins analysis. In addition PT can be a useful tool to evaluate the state-of-art of methods for mycotoxin analysis by comparison of laboratory's performances. A number of PT schemes for individual or group of structurally related mycotoxins exist at international level. Only recently the interest is moving toward the organization of PTs for multi-mycotoxin determination by LC-MS. In 2014 the Institute of Sciences of Food Production of the National Research Council of Italy organized an international PT to check, next to the laboratory performance, the state-of-art of currently used multi-mycotoxin methods and their implementation in the respective laboratory. Test materials were maize contaminated with aflatoxins B1 (AFB1), B2 (AFB2), G1 (AFG1) and G2 (AFG2), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisin B1 (FB1) and B2 (FB2), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEA), T-2 and HT-2 toxins, and wheat contaminated with DON, ZEA, T-2, HT-2 and OTA. Eighteen laboratories from 10 Countries using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methodologies participated in the study and returned results for various combinations of mycotoxins. The overall performance of participating laboratories and the assessment trend in multi-mycotoxin determination by LC-MS will be presented and discussed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
