Title : Molecularly imprinted polymers for mycotoxins analysis in foods
Abstract:
Public concern associated with food and feed contamination with toxigenic fungi or their metabolites has risen significantly in recent decades because of the well-known negative impact of these compounds on human health, including carcinogenic, teratogenic and nephrotoxic effects, among others. For this reason, the European Commission has already set maximum levels for several mycotoxins in different types of foods. From an analytical point of view, mycotoxins analysis is a challenging task, especially when employing cheap and non-sophisticated approaches. In fact, these compounds are generally present at low concentration in really complex matrices; therefore, a sample preparation step is often mandatory for analytes pre-concentration as well as interferences removal. In this context, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) sorbents, which are synthetic materials with a three-dimensional cavity able to selectively bind a target compound or a class of structural analogues, may represent an analytical solution for the selective extraction and therefore analysis of these compounds in foods. This presentation will present the research activities that have been carried out to develop and validate reliable methods for the extraction of zearalenone and patulin from several food samples using molecularly imprinted polymers as solid-phase extraction sorbents (MIP-SPE). The methods herein proposed have been in-house validated and compared with other extraction procedures, such as conventional SPE, QuEChERS and liquid–liquid approaches. Advantages and drawbacks of the proposed methodologies will be also discussed.
Audience Take Away:
- Extraction efficiency of mycotoxins using molecularly imprinted polymers as SPE sorbent
- In-house validation of method based on MIP-SPE for mycotoxins analysis.
- Advantages/drawbacks of molecularly imprinted polymers in foods analysis
