Analysis of Fusarium Toxins in Processed Grain Products Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

An analytical method for the simultaneous detection of five types of Fusarium toxins (nivalenol (NIV), deoxynivalenol (DON), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), T-2 toxin (T-2), and zearalenone (ZEN)) in processed grains has been developed. Mycotoxins in the sample were extracted using acetonitrile-water (85:15 v/v), purified using MultiSep 226 AflaZon+ multi-functional cartridge columns, and quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). With wheat flour, the proposed method showed good linearity (r > 0.999), and the accuracy was 85 - 97%. The RSD values of the intra-day precision were 1.9 - 13.3% and those of the inter-day precision were 10.2 - 19.6%. In a study of commercial foodstuffs, the limit of quantification was 15 μg/kg for NIV and DON, and 5 μg/kg for HT-2, T-2, and ZEN. Using the validated method, we conducted a contamination study of 55 processed food samples, including a variety of wheat and corn products. DON was detected in 36 samples, with a maximum concentration of 238 μg/kg in corn grits. In addition, HT-2 was detected in six samples, and T-2 was detected in two samples, in products that contained wheat as the raw material, with concentrations of less than 20 μg/kg.