Abstract
A single laboratory validation study of a rapid and sensitive quantitative method for the analysis of cereulide toxin produced by Bacillus cereus using ultra high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry is presented. The analysis of this cyclic peptide toxin was validated for pasta and rice samples using a newly presented synthetic cereulide peptide standard, together with 13C6-cereulide that previously have not been commercially available. The use of cereulide standard was also compared to the most frequently used surrogate standard, the antibiotic valinomycin. The performance of the method was evaluated by analyzing spiked sample pools from different types of rice and pasta, as well as 21 individual rice and pasta samples from differently prepared meals. Inoculation of samples with three cereulide toxin-producing strains of Bacillus cereus was finally used to mimic naturally contaminated foods. The quantification range of the method was 1–500 ng/g (R2 = 0.999) and the limits of detection and quantification were 0.1 and 1 ng/g, respectively. The precision varied from 3% to 7% relative standard deviation and the trueness from −2% to +6% relative bias at different concentration levels in cooked rice and pasta.
Highlights
Cereulide toxine produced by Bacillus cereus, a Gram-positive bacteria, is a common cause of food poisoning [1,2]
We present a short in-house validation of a method using the novel synthetic cereulide standard together with 13C6-labeled cereulide as internal standard for quantitative analysis of cereulide toxin in rice and pasta samples with UPLC-ESI-MS/MS
The method is validated for food matrices based on rice and pasta, which stand for the vast majority of the food poisonings involving cereulide in the world
Summary
Cereulide toxine produced by Bacillus cereus, a Gram-positive bacteria, is a common cause of food poisoning [1,2]. We present a short in-house validation of a method using the novel synthetic cereulide standard together with 13C6-labeled cereulide as internal standard for quantitative analysis of cereulide toxin in rice and pasta samples with UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report on the quantitative MS analysis of cereulide using original standard. The presented method is performed and sensitive which together with its rapidness and specificity makes it be the best choice in emergent scenarios when it is important to distinguish the food-born disease caused by low levels of cereulide from B. cereus from other food intoxications that give similar symptoms, in order to protect human health
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call