DETERMINATION OF OCHRATOXINS IN FOOD BY HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY – TANDEM MASS SPECTROMETRY (LC-MS/MS)

Abstract

    Cereal are products essential in the our daily life However, cereals are prone to contamination by ochratoxins, which is toxic, carcinogenic and thermostable. A sensitive, reliable method was proposed for the determination of ochratoxins in food by high-performance liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The samples were firstly extracted and then cleaned up with an SPE C18 cartridge for LC-MS/MS analysis. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for ochratoxins were 0,1 and 0,3 ng /mL, respectively. The recoveries of ochratoxins from cereal spiked at 2,5; 5 and 10 mg/kg ranged from 70 to 110%. The developed method was applied to the detection of 15 samples peanut, corn and 5 samples wine and 2 samples were contaminated by ochratoxins with levels below the newest legal limits.