SENSITIVE ENZYME-LINKED-IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY FOR SCREENING AFLATOXIN B-1 IN FOODSTUFFS AND FEEDSTUFFS

Aflatoxins are toxic metabolites produced by strains of Aspergillus fl avus and Aspergillus parasiticus. They occur worldwide and contaminate certain foods and feedstuffs, especially wheat, corn, soya and ground nut products. Although the climate in Hungary is not favourable for pr oduction of these moulds, by consumption of imported foods these mycot oxins can cause serious health problems. As aflatoxin B-1 is highly ca rcinogenic, its accepted level is regulated in many countries, the off icial limit in Hungary is 5 ng/g. Five years ago our institute started a research program for developing ELISA tests to detect mycotoxins in food and feeds, resulted in reagent-kits for T-2, zearalenone and och ratoxin-A. This program continued by development of sensitive, monoclo nal antibody-based direct, competitive ELISA test and reagent kit for quantitative measurement of aflatoxin B-1 with detection limit of 1.5 ng/g in cereals. The mean within-assay and interassay coefficients of variation of the standard curves were less than 10 %. With acetonitril e based extraction solvent the mean recovery values from cereals conta minated artificially with this mycotoxin was about 80 %. This test was offered for screening of samples in control laboratories.