COMPARATIVE-ASSESSMENT OF FUMONISIN IN GRAIN-BASED FOODS BY ELISA, GC-MS, AND HPLC

Seventy-one (71) food samples were analyzed for the mycotoxin fumonisi n by a monoclonal antibody based competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbe nt assay (ELISA). Fumonisins were detected primarily in corn-based pro ducts with 7/12, 2/2 and 1/3 and 1/7 yellow cornmeal, blue cornmeal, c orn muffin mix, and mixed grain cereal samples yielding positive resul ts, respectively. When the positive samples and randomly selected nega tive samples were assessed by other methods, correlations (r values) b etween ELISA and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), ELISA a nd high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and GC-MS and HPLC were 0.478 (p < 0.05), 0.512 (p < 0.05), and 0.946 (p < 0.01), respectively . The results suggested that although the immunoassay could be used fo r screening of fumonisin in food samples, higher estimates were attain ed by ELISA than by the other two methods particularly in the more con taminated samples. These observations may result from differences in s ample; preparation among the methods or because of the presence of str ucturally related compounds in extracts that are detectable by ELISA b ut not the other two methods.