Abstract
As a class of mycotoxins with regulatory and public health significance, aflatoxins (e.g., aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2) have attracted unparalleled attention from government, academia and industry due to their chronic and acute toxicity. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of various Aspergillus species, which are ubiquitous in the environment and can grow on a variety of crops whereby accumulation is impacted by climate influences. Consumption of foods and feeds contaminated by aflatoxins are hazardous to human and animal health, hence the detection and quantification of aflatoxins in foods and feeds is a priority from the viewpoint of food safety. Since the first purification and identification of aflatoxins from feeds in the 1960s, there have been continuous efforts to develop sensitive and rapid methods for the determination of aflatoxins. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview on advances in aflatoxins analysis and highlights the importance of sample pretreatments, homogenization and various cleanup strategies used in the determination of aflatoxins. The use of liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), solid phase extraction (SPE) and immunoaffinity column clean-up (IAC) and dilute and shoot for enhancing extraction efficiency and clean-up are discussed. Furthermore, the analytical techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), mass spectrometry (MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) are compared in terms of identification, quantitation and throughput. Lastly, with the emergence of new techniques, the review culminates with prospects of promising technologies for aflatoxin analysis in the foreseeable future.
Highlights
Aflatoxins are a class of toxic metabolites generated by certain fungi that are commonly found in the environment
This review focuses on aflatoxins but not multimycotoxin analysis, so the above discussion aims to use a few representative studies to illustrate major trends and challenges concerning liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS) based mycotoxin analysis and the impact of LC-MS. Between a well-established technique (LC-MS) on aflatoxin analysis
Aflatoxin contamination will remain a global public health concern yet challenges that each country/region faces are very diverse
Summary
Aflatoxins are a class of toxic metabolites generated by certain fungi that are commonly found in the environment. Since aflatoxin contamination has been gradually recognized as a threat to global food safety and trade [8,9,10,11]. Aflatoxin M1 is less hepatotoxic and immunotoxic than its parent compound, aflatoxin B1 , it is stable under pasteurization temperature used to process milk It is classified as a possible human carcinogen (group 2B) by the IARC. 0.025 μg/kg in infant formulas and dietary foods for special medical purposes intended for infants Large variability among these regulatory levels exists because of the requirements (feasibility and economic impact) and approaches to risk analysis are defined in national/regional legislation [26]. To comply with established regulatory levels and ensure food and feed are safe for consumption and trade, development of analytical methods that are suitable for monitoring and surveillance of aflatoxins are critical.
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