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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #247269

Title: Rapid and Advanced Tools for Mycotoxin Analysis

Author
item Maragos, Chris
item Busman, Mark

Submitted to: Journal of Food Additives & Contaminants
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/20/2009
Publication Date: 2/12/2010
Citation: Maragos, C.M., Busman, M. 2010. Rapid and Advanced Tools for Mycotoxin Analysis. Journal of Food Additives & Contaminants. 27(5):688-700. doi:10.1080/19440040903515934.

Interpretive Summary: Toxins produced by certain molds (mycotoxins) are a recurring issue, as they can affect animal health and productivity and can affect the quality and value of a variety of important agricultural commodities. For this reason detection of mycotoxins is important from both food safety and economic viewpoints. This review surveys the range of technologies for the rapid detection of mycotoxins. The potential application of one such technique, desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) for fumonisin B1 on maize is highlighted.

Technical Abstract: The problems associated with mycotoxin contamination of foods and feeds are well established and, in many cases have been known for a long time. As a consequence the techniques for detecting known mycotoxins are quite advanced and range from methods for directly detecting the toxins themselves, based upon physical characteristics of the toxins, to methods for indirectly detecting the toxins, such as immunoassays. This review focuses on recent technologies that can be used to detect mycotoxins and, as such, is not a comprehensive review of mycotoxin analytical literature. Rather, the intent is to survey the range of technologies from those that are instrument-intensive such as modern chromatographic methods to those that require no instrumentation, such as certain immunoassays and biosensors. In particular mass spectrometric techniques using ambient ionization offer the intriguing possibility of non-destructive sampling and detection. The potential application of one such technique, desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) is demonstrated for fumonisin B1 on maize. While methods for detecting mycotoxins are quite advanced the need remains for assays with increased throughput, for the exploration of novel detection technologies, and for the comprehensive validation of such technologies as they continue to be developed.