Determination of selected mycotoxins in mould cheeses with liquid chromatography coupled to tandem with mass spectrometry

Abstract

A simple and feasible method is described for analysing nine mycotoxins in cheese matrix. The method involves liquid extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatographic separation and mass spectrometric detection of the analytes, and allows the determination of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2 and M1, ochratoxin A, mycophenolic acid, penicillic acid and roquefortine C simultaneously. Average recoveries of the mycotoxins from spiked samples at concentration levels of 5–200 µg kg⁻¹ ranged from 96–143%. Within-day relative standard deviations at these concentration levels varied from 2.3–12.1%. The limit of quantification for aflatoxin M1 was 0.6 µg kg⁻¹ and for the other compounds 5 µg kg⁻¹. The method developed was applied for analysing these mycotoxins in blue and white mould cheeses purchased from Finnish supermarkets. Roquefortine C was detected in all of the blue mould cheese samples in concentrations of 0.8–12 mg kg⁻¹. One blue cheese contained also 0.3 mg kg⁻¹ mycophenolic acid. The other investigated mycotoxins were absent in the samples.

Keywords:

• LC-MS/MS
• mould cheese
• mycotoxins

Acknowledgements

This study was a part of the EU project (QLK1-2000-01763) “Rapid detection of microbial contaminants in foods using electronic nose technology”. We thank Jeorgos Trihaas from DTU, Denmark for supplying the cheese powder. We are also grateful to Mervi Rokka for her assistance with LC-MS/MS method development.