Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites
with structural and toxicological properties
that induce a variety of toxic and
carcinogenic effects when food contaminated
with these compounds is ingested. The
occurrence of mycotoxins in agricultural
commodities depends on the conditions under
which a particular crop is grown, harvested
and, or stored. Mycotoxins are stable under
most food processing conditions and
therefore, persist to the final product. It
is, therefore, impossible to eliminate them
once the foodstuffs are contaminated.
Mycotoxins are rapidly becoming more
important due to the increased concern for
Food Safety and resulting in advanced
control. It is, therefore, imperative to
eliminate contaminated materials in order to
allow the timely and economical processing
of non-contaminated batches.
Euro-Diagnostica has two types of diagnostic
technologies available for mycotoxin
testing. The
Flow-Through Rapid Test is a
simple test to screen for mycotoxins on-site
or under non-laboratory conditions. The kit
is self-contained, no training is required
and the results are visually evaluated. This
product is used to speed up the food
processing chain by controlling the quality
of the raw material within 10 minutes.
A second platform for the detection of
Mycotoxins is 96 well Enzyme-Immunoassay (EIA). The
use of the EIA allows quantitative analysis
of a large number of samples within a
relatively short time and at low cost. The EIAs are sensitive down to ppt level with
high accuracy rates in a variety of food
matrices.
The Flow-Through Rapid Tests and
Enzyme-Immunoassays are the ultimate system
for screening Mycotoxins on site as well as
in a routine laboratory setting.
Positive results obtained with these
screening methods can be confirmed by HPLC,
LC-MS and GC-MS.
