February 4, 2014    

Randox Food releases first mycotoxins screening product

The UK-headquartered company, Randox Food Diagnostics, is announcing the release of its first mycotoxins screening product.

Randox has an extensive range of drug residue screening solutions both on traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and its ground-breaking BioChip multiplexing platforms, supplying some of the world's largest processors.

With a myriad of mycotoxins posing risk to consumers, Randox Food Diagnostics selected a niche product for market entry. Ergot alkaloids were the first mycotoxins which came to prominence, with incidences recorded as far back as the 800s AD. In modern times outbreaks in human populations are isolated, with the last major incident recorded in Ethiopia in 2001.

Nowadays the focus is more on animal health, testing grains used in feed production. Ergot alkaloids are produced by fungi of all species of the Claviceps genus, which parasitise the seed heads of living plants at the time of flowering. The fungus replaces the developing grain or seed with the alkaloid wintering body, known as ergot, ergot body or sclerotium. The sclerotia are harvested together with the cereals or grass, and if not removed before processing, can lead to contamination of cereal-based food and feed products.

Contaminated feed with toxic levels of ergot alkaloids has been found to affect the reproductive cycles of pigs, poultry and cattle, causing animals to terminate pregnancies. They also have been shown to impact upon digestive systems, resulting in poor weight-gain for meat production.

Randox Food Diagnostics recognise the particular need within the mycotoxins sector to test for a wide range of analytes. Developed through a decade of research and an investment of £200 million (US$326 million), their own BioChip Array Technology can detect up to 23 different analytes from a single sample, adding huge potential for savings via time and cost.