Survey of Deoxynivalenol Contamination in Agricultural Products in the Chinese Market Using An ELISA Kit.

Ming Li,Mingna Sun,Daolin Du,Xia Hong,Jinsheng Duan

doi:10.3390/toxins11010006

Abstract

A total of 328 agricultural product samples highly suspected to be contaminated, from flour companies, feed companies, and livestock farms throughout China, were surveyed for deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination using a self-assembly enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. An ELISA kit for DON was developed with a 4.9 ng mL−1 limit of detection (LOD) in working buffer and a 200 ng g−1 LOD in authentic samples. The DON contamination detection rate was 88.7%, concentrations ranged from 200.9 to 6480.6 ng g−1, and the highest DON contamination was found in distillers’ dried grains with solubles with an average of 3204.5 ng g−1. Wheat bran and wheat were found to be the most commonly contaminated samples, and the corn meal samples had the lowest average DON level. This ELISA kit is a powerful alternative method for the rapid, sensitive, specific, accurate, and high-throughput determination of DON and can meet the maximum requirement levels. This survey suggests that DON contamination in the Chinese market is serious, and the contamination risk deserves attention. Essential preventive measures should be implemented to ensure food safety and human health.

Highlights

Deoxynivalenol (DON), a highly toxic secondary metabolite mainly produced by Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium culmorum, may threaten the health of humans and animals, as it acts as an antifeedant and demonstrates immunotoxicity, organ toxicity, inhibition of protein synthesis, and teratogenicity [1,2,3]
The proposed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for DON had a limit of detection (LOD, IC15 ) of 4.9 ng mL−1, a half-maximal inhibition concentration (IC50 ) of 25.2 ng mL−1, and a linear range (IC15 –IC85 ) of
These results suggested that the accuracy and precision of the proposed ELISA kit was satisfactory for the survey of DON contamination in the selected samples

Summary

Introduction

Deoxynivalenol (DON), a highly toxic secondary metabolite mainly produced by Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium culmorum, may threaten the health of humans and animals, as it acts as an antifeedant and demonstrates immunotoxicity, organ toxicity, inhibition of protein synthesis, and teratogenicity [1,2,3]. DON contaminates wheat, barley, corn, and other cereal crops and food products worldwide [4,5]. Its co-toxic effect with other mycotoxins such as aflatoxin cannot be ignored [6]. Given its serious toxic effects, the European Commission (EC) published a tolerable daily intake for DON of 1 μg kg−1 of body weight per day [7], and the European Union (EU) set the DON maximum levels (MLs) at 1250 ng g−1 and 750 ng g−1 in unprocessed cereals and food, respectively [8]. In China, the ML of DON in corn, wheat, and their products was regulated at 1000 ng g−1 [9].

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Conclusion