Food Safety

Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites with structural and toxicological properties that induce a variety of toxic and carcinogenic effects. The occurrence of mycotoxins in agricultural commodities depends on the conditions under which a particular crop is grown, harvested and, or stored. Mycotoxins are stable under most food processing conditions and therefore, persist to the final product. It is, therefore, impossible to eliminate them once the foodstuffs are contaminated.

Mycotoxin contamination is rapidly becoming more important due to increased concerns for Food Safety.  This has, therefore, an impetus to the formulation of more regulations. The European Union (EU) has already set regulations for the maximum permissible limits for some mycotoxins. These include: Ochratoxin A (OTA), Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), Total Aflatoxins and Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in different food and feed types and their products. Once contaminated it is impossible to eliminate mycotoxins from food or feed. It is, therefore, imperative to eliminate contaminated materials in order to allow the timely and economical processing of non-contaminated batches. EuroProxima has two platform solutions for mycotoxin testing. The Flow-Through Rapid Test is a simple on-site screening tool for mycotoxins. The kit is self-contained, no training is required and the results are visually evaluated. This product is used to speed up the food processing chain by controlling the quality of the raw material within 10 minutes. The Flow-Through Rapid Tests and Enzyme-Immunoassays are the ultimate system for screening Mycotoxins on site as well as in a routine laboratory setting. Positive results obtained with these screening methods can be confirmed by HPLC, LC-MS and GC-MS.

The second solution for the detection of Mycotoxins is the Enzyme-Immunoassay (ELISA). The use of the ELISA allows quantitative analysis of a large number of samples within a relatively short time and at a low cost. The ELISAs are sensitive down to ppt levels with high accuracy rates in a variety of food matrices.