Multi-mycotoxins screening methods: current trend and innovative solutions

According to the General Food Law (EC) No. 178/2002, which sets the legal basis of the European Union food controls, the food and feed business operators have the primary responsibility for the safety of their products. Their demand for simplified and rapid test methods at critical control points in the entire chain has never been greater. Validated rapid screening methods are nowadays recognised as a strategic tool to tackle this issue, and, by analogy with chromatographic methods, mainly based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, the new trend in this field is multiplexing. This topic also falls within the scopes of the MycoKey project, which explored different technologies for rapid multi-mycotoxin screening, including: multiplex strip test immunoassays for the semi-quantitative determination of Fusarium toxins and fluorescence polarization immunoassays for the quantitative simultaneous determination of trichothecenes and their modified forms. The process of evaluating methods fitness-for-purposes according to EC official guidelines and performance criteria (Regulation 519/2014/EU) will be presented and discussed. Validation according to harmonised protocols is critical to establish credibility of results across both scientific and regulatory boundaries. However, besides methods' performances, practicality of the different approaches for mycotoxin screening needs to be considered. These aspects will be discussed in comparison with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based methods when applied for mycotoxin screening purposes. Moreover, a MycoKey survey was performed among scientists and stakeholders for the collection and sharing of current knowledge and experience on rapid methods for mycotoxin screening. This, together with some lessons learned during the MycoKey round table discussion on mycotoxin detection methods, enabled a better understanding of trends in research and development areas in this field. The results from these discussions and their significance will be summarised to highlight priorities and critical issues to be addressed to provide multi-mycotoxin rapid methods that fit stakeholders' needs and expectations.