Mycotoxins & Biotoxins

Identification and Control of Biotoxins in Food Products

Biotoxins, including mycotoxins, phycotoxins (also known as marine biotoxins) and phytotoxins, occur in food through fungal infections, interaction-with or feeding-on other toxic organisms (e.g. algae), naturally produced toxins as a means of protection or through internal processes in the food during storage. Biotoxins can be extremely dangerous to both animals and humans, causing illness and even death when present, and their control in food and animal feed is vitally important.

Many biotoxins have relatively large molecular weights, predisposing them often to LC/MS techniques. LC/QQQ systems can handle many compounds in one analysis allowing for screening of regulated compounds and others of concern that merit monitoring for human exposure until better characterized by toxicologists. LC/QTOF can also offer answers for target quantitation and can perform untargeted acquisition allowing the analyst to investigate more of a sample’s contents allowing for metabolomic studies.