PERFORMANCE OF MODERN SAMPLE PREPARATION TECHNIQUES IN THE ANALYSIS OF FUSARIUM MYCOTOXINS IN CEREALS

The efficiency of modern sample preparation techniques are discussed a nd compared to well-established techniques with respect to the determi nation of zearalenone in corn and B-trichothecenes in wheat in the mu g/kg range. This includes the use of immune-affinity columns and of mu ltifunctional Mycosep columns as well as the employment of supercritic al fluid extraction for the trace analysis of these major fusarium myc otoxins. In addition, the performance of new analytical methods was in vestigated in an interlaboratory comparison study only recently organi zed by our laboratory. From both the validation data, and from the res ults of the intercomparison study, the suitability and competitiveness of the described methods could be clearly demonstrated. (C) 1998 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.