Occurrence of fumonisins in organic and conventional cereal-based products commercialized in France, Germany and Spain

A fast and effective method for quantitative determination of fumonisins B-1 and B-2 (FB1 and FB2) in different cereal-based products was developed. Fumonisins were extracted combining a solid liquid extraction (SLE) pre-treatment and immunoaffinity columns (IACs), which were applied for an effective cleanup. Consecutively, high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to hybrid triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometer (QTrap (R)) was used for the separation, detection and quantification of targeted mycotoxins. The analytical method showed acceptable recoveries ranged from 89.7% to 99.1%, as well as a relative standard deviation (%, RSD) lower than 12%. A total of 1250 samples from France, Germany and Spain were analysed. The incidence of fumonisin B-1 and B-2 in organic samples were 11.4% and 11.3%, respectively. By contrast, the occurrence of conventional samples was 3.6% of FB1 and 3.5% of FB2. The highest values were obtained in Spanish samples of flour, as an example toasted corn, called gofio that was contaminated with 1201.7 and 1010.5 mu g kg(-1) of FB1 and FB2, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.