Highly sensitive mycotoxin testing for food and feed analysis
Jan 21st 2020
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by certain molds that colonize crops and other commodities, thus potentially entering the food chain. Whenever growth conditions are right, molds proliferate into colonies and mycotoxin levels rise. Among the different mycotoxins, Aflatoxin B1 is the most toxic and also a potent carcinogen which has been correlated to severe illnesses like liver cancer in many animal species and humans. As a result of this, many countries have statutory limits for mycotoxin levels in food and animal feed, which in turn requires reliable and cost effective methods for the detection and quantification of such mycotoxins being available to the market.
Aflatoxins are the most common mycotoxins present in food and feed with Aflatoxin B1 being the most potent genotoxic and carcinogenic type. Aflatoxin M1 is a major metabolite of Aflatoxin B1 in humans and animals and is therefore present in milk from animals fed with contaminated feed. In addition to aflatoxins, mainly produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, other common mycotoxins include Ochratoxin A and Deoxynivalenol, Zearalenone and T2 Toxin which are produced from certain species of Fusarium. It is beyond dispute that controlling mycotoxin levels in human food as well as animal feed requires reliable and cost effective detection and quantification measures to prevent unsuitable commodities from entering the food chain.
The range of Mycotoxin ELISAs covers the most abundant mycotoxins present in food and feed and provide for a highly sensitive quantification method to be used with a steadily growing base of validated matrices as new applications and regulations arise. The below ELISAs provide a fast and yet sensitive method for quantifying mycotoxin levels in the most prevalent commodities that require realtime results, for example for batch release purposes. Overall process times were geared to requirements as defined by the USDA GIPSA test performance specifications.