High Speed, High Resolution Analysis (Part 40) Analysis of Aflatoxins in Food by Nexera UHPLC with an Immunoaffinity Column for Sample Preparation

Aflatoxins are my cotoxins that are extremely carcinogenic and acutely toxic, and are therefore subject to stringent monitoring in food products. In the past, aflatoxin control in Japan applied specifically to aflatoxin B1, but from October, 2011, total aflatoxins (total of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2) became subject to this restriction1). The official notification of this regulation change specifies the use of a multifunctional column or an immunoaffinity column for isolation and cleanup of the af latoxins 2). Of the two, it is believed that an immunoaffinity column would be more effective for samples like spices and processed foods, which contain many impurity substances. In Application News No. L422, we introduced an example of aflatoxins analysis which offered improved analysis efficiency, in which we conducted ultra-highspeed analysis of the 4 aflatoxins using a combination of the Prominence RF-20Axs high- sensitivity fluorescence detector and the Nexera Ultra High Performance LC system using direct high-sensitivity fluorescence detection without derivatization of the aflatoxins. Here we introduce an example of high-speed analysis using direct fluorescence detection in which the aflatoxins in processed food and spice were cleaned up using an immunoaffinity column.