The presentations were well received and commented on by various research groups.

 

Nutriad and Ghent University have been working for two years on the project which led to the development of a prototype rapid test kit for mycotoxins.

 

Mycotoxins are natural, relatively small secondary metabolites, produced by fungal species such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium, and grows on agricultural commodities both in the field and during storage. Mycotoxins cause different biochemical, functional and morphological disorders in organs of humans and animals, which can lead to higher morbidity and mortality. Animal exposure to mycotoxins occurs mainly through ingestion of contaminated feed, whereas humans can be harmed by eating contaminated vegetables, cereals and contaminated meat.

 

It is inevitable that under certain conditions, mycotoxin contamination of various foodstuffs is unavoidable. However, its control and prevention directly in the field is an aim of agricultural and food industries. Erik Visser, CEO Nutriad, says, "Our technical team is convinced that one of the best practical ways to detect mycotoxins exposure in both raw materials and feed is using the rapid tests."

 

Various rapid systems for detection of different mycotoxins are commercially available. All of them are suitable for quick and sensitive screening of raw materials before they enter a feed mill. Once the mycotoxins levels are evaluated in all ingredients, the contamination level at a feed mill can then be estimated. This allows for the precise calculation of the amount of mycotoxin deactivator or binder needed.

 

However, Visser points out: "Whilst these rapid techniques are characterised by good analytical performances, most of them are specific only for one certain mycotoxin, which significantly limits their applications."

 

This is because various fungi are able to produce several mycotoxins simultaneously, and food and feed can be contaminated by several fungi species at the same time. In addition, blends of various raw materials in compound feed can increase the risk of feed contamination by several toxins. Therefore, humans and animals are generally exposed to not only one, but several toxins at the same time.

 

Therefore, this indicates that a strong need for the development of a multi-detection approach is required. Sample throughput is an important criterion when a large sample series needs to be monitored for multiple toxins, when time is of the essence. As a rule, these rapid testing techniques may not require complicated sample pretreatment except for one-step extraction and/or dilution.

 

Nutriad has collaborated with Ghent University for the past two years and developed the sensitive flow-through membrane-based immunochemical test.

 

This test is used for simultaneous, rapid, semi-quantitative detection of four mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, ochratoxin A and aflatoxin B1) in the most critical sources such as feed, wheat, barley and corn. The achieved cut-off values are 200 ppb, 50 ppb, 10 ppb and 1 ppb for deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, ochratoxin A and aflatoxin B1, respectively. Although this on-site test might be less precise and specific than chromatography, it allows operating in the ng mL-1 range and is suitable for preliminary on-site screening of large amounts of samples.