As a class of mycotoxins with regulatory and public health significance, aflatoxins (e.g., aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2) have attracted unparalleled attention from government, academia and industry due to their chronic and acute toxicity. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of various Aspergillus species, which are ubiquitous in the environment and can grow on a variety of crops whereby accumulation is impacted by climate influences. Consumption of foods and feeds contaminated by aflatoxins are hazardous to human and animal health, hence the detection and quantification of aflatoxins in foods and feeds is a priority from the viewpoint of food safety. Since the first purification and identification of aflatoxins from feeds in the 1960s, there have been continuous efforts to develop sensitive and rapid methods for the determination of aflatoxins. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview on advances in aflatoxins analysis and highlights the importance of sample pretreatments, homogenization and various cleanup strategies used in the determination of aflatoxins. The use of liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), solid phase extraction (SPE) and immunoaffinity column clean-up (IAC) and dilute and shoot for enhancing extraction efficiency and clean-up are discussed. Furthermore, the analytical techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), mass spectrometry (MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) are compared in terms of identification, quantitation and throughput. Lastly, with the emergence of new techniques, the review culminates with prospects of promising technologies for aflatoxin analysis in the foreseeable future.

A Review: Sample Preparation and Chromatographic Technologies for Detection of Aflatoxins in Foods.

The constant surveillance regarding how much safe the food we are intaking has become a critical point in current science since its quality directly affects our health. Several chemicals are used to control plague, diseases, or as health promoters in crops and animals. Although the main classes being controlled are pesticides and veterinary drugs, considerable attention has been targeted to mycotoxins in the last decades. Most of these naturally occurring toxins are very poisonous for humans by causing carcinogenic effects, nervous system disturbances, gastrointestinal disorders, and other diseases. For these reasons, analytical chemistry plays a fundamental role in monitoring mycotoxins' presence in food matrices. Within such a context, the application of the most recent advancements obtained in liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and the coupling of those techniques, as well as its more relevant characteristics for screening and quantitative analysis of mycotoxins, are discussed in detail. As occur with other tools applied to mycotoxin analysis, liquid chromatography has evolved to faster, more efficient, and environmentally friendly separations, involving ultra high-performance, miniaturized (capillary and nano-LC) and analytical and preparative multidimensional techniques. In the same way, mass spectrometry has been given due attention, discussing its most efficient ionization modes, mass analyzers, and their coupling with LC. Finally, applications dealing with mycotoxins' determination in food, including vegetables, animals, and processed samples, are presented. In this way, the last five years were preferentially considered the focus without excluding some significant earlier achievements.

Current role of modern chromatography and mass spectrometry in the analysis of mycotoxins in food

The ongoing pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is literally changing the world. From December 2019 to date, more than 22 million cases have been reported worldwide and global health institutions are acting to slow down the virus transmission and are looking for possible prevention strategies in case of a new outbreak. As in other endemic or pandemic phenomena, the issues mostly covered by scientific and media attention are related to the diagnostic and therapeutic approach of COVID-19. However, a still neglected issue regards the adoption of a more systemic approach considering the close connection among the infection, the environment, and human behaviors, including the role of diet and urban management. To shed light on this issue, we brought together a faculty group involving experts in environment and biodiversity, food safety, human nutrition, and behavior, bioprospecting, as well as medical doctors having a deep knowledge of the complex historical relationship between humanity and vector-borne infections. Two main aspects emerged from the integrative overview of the current COVID-19 pandemic: (i) the scientific community should start sharing social actions and policy advocacy based on the assumption that human health strongly depends upon a sustainable exploitation of natural resources in populated areas; (ii) the specific strategic role of the cities in developing sustainable food systems and promoting healthy dietary patterns. Definitely, some priority issues should be addressed to achieve these goals, such as global efforts to increase food safety and security, which would benefit from urban and peri-urban agriculture enhancement, smallholder food producers support, and ecosystem services and local biodiversity maintenance.

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Rethinking Urban and Food Policies to Improve Citizens Safety After COVID-19 Pandemic

Fluonanobody-based nanosensor via fluorescence resonance energy transfer for ultrasensitive detection of ochratoxin A.

Fluonanobody-based nanosensor via fluorescence resonance energy transfer for ultrasensitive detection of ochratoxin A

Determination of mycotoxins in beer by multi heart-cutting two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method

Honey is a natural food widely consumed due to its high content in nutrients and bioactive substances. In order to prevent hive infections, xenobiotics such as pesticides and antibiotics are commonly used. Chloramphenicol (CAP) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to treat honeybee larvae diseases. However, CAP has toxic and nondose-dependent effects in sensitive subjects; for this reason, its use has been prohibited in food-producing animals, such as the honeybee. In this study, we proposed a rapid, simple, and cheap analytical method, based on salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction coupled with UHPLC MS/MS detection for the accurate determination of CAP in honey to be used in routine analyses. The parameters that influence the extraction efficiency have been optimized using an experimental design in order to maximize the recovery of the analyte by reducing the matrix effects. Therefore, the developed method was internally validated according to the 2002/657/EC Decision guidelines and applied to the analysis of 96 honey samples.

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Determination of Chloramphenicol in Honey Using Salting-Out Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction Coupled with Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry and Validation According to 2002/657 European Commission Decision

Orange (Citrus sinensis) juice contains a high amount of antioxidant compounds, such as polyphenols and vitamins. The aim of this work was to develop an adsorption procedure for the quantitative recovery of polyphenols from fresh orange juice. Different macroporous resins have been selected to evaluate their affinity for phenolic compound in order to purify the antioxidant compounds from the orange juice. The main compounds of orange juice were firstly characterized using an UPLC-UV-HRMS to define the metabolite profile, and subsequently three different types of adsorbent (XAD-2, XAD-4, and XAD-16N) were tested to concentrate these bioactive compounds. The time of contact was selected based on kinetic studies, and subsequently the adsorption and elution conditions were optimized in order to maximize the recovery of phenolic compounds to obtain an extract rich of bioactive compounds. Lastly, antioxidant capacity of the orange juice extract of selected macroporous resin, obtained under optimized conditions, was determined by in vitro antioxidant assays.

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Serena Rizzo

Papers

Determination of mycotoxins in beer by multi heart-cutting two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method

Determination of Chloramphenicol in Honey Using Salting-Out Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction Coupled with Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry and Validation According to 2002/657 European Commission Decision

Development of an Enriched Polyphenol (Natural Antioxidant) Extract from Orange Juice (Citrus sinensis) by Adsorption on Macroporous Resins

Specialized metabolite profiling of different Glycyrrhiza glabra organs by untargeted UHPLC-HRMS