Validation of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Test Kit for Determination of Aflatoxin B(1)in Corn Feed and Comparison with Liquid-Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) Method

摘要

Animal feed is a potential route for contaminants like mycotoxins to enter into the human food chain. Hence, close monitoring is fundamental and should be performed with adequate analytical methods. In this study, a commercial ELISA kit for aflatoxin B(1)detection in feed corn samples, RIDASCREEN (R) Aflatoxin B1 30/15, was assessed by the evaluation of some performance parameters. Basically, the following results were achieved: limit of detection of 1.1 mu g/kg and limit of quantification of 2.5 mu g/kg; repeatability of 9.3%; 18.0% of intermediate precision; trueness of 101.8%; relative expanded uncertainty of +/- 0.46 mu g/kg; cut-off value of 14 mu g/kg and a very low rate of false suspect results, for screening. In addition, specific requirements for the appliance of this kit as a screening method at the concentration of 20 mu g/kg were also determined. Lastly, corn samples were analysed with the kit and with an LC-MS/MS method, and the results were compared. Among the 40 corn samples analysed, only one sample was contaminated with a quantifiable aflatoxin B(1)content. The results obtained with the ELISA kit were confirmed by LC-MS/MS.