A Greener, Quick and Comprehensive Extraction Approach for LC-MS of Multiple Mycotoxins

In food/feed control, mycotoxin analysis is often still performed “one analyte at a time”. Here a method is presented which aims at making mycotoxin analysis environmentally friendlier through replacing acetonitrile by ethyl acetate and reducing chemical waste production by analyzing four mycotoxins together, forgoing sample extract clean-up, and minimizing solvent consumption. For this, 2 g of test material were suspended in 8 mL water and 16 mL ethyl acetate were added. Extraction was accelerated through sonication for 30 min and subsequent addition of 8 g sodium sulfate. After centrifugation, 500 µL supernatant were spiked with isotopologues, dried down, reconstituted in mobile phase, and measured with LC-MS. The method was validated in-house and through a collaborative study and the performance was fit-for-purpose. Repeatability relative standard deviation (RSDs) between 16% at low and 4% at higher contaminations were obtained. The reproducibility RSDs were mostly between 12% and 32%. The trueness of results for T-2 toxin and Zearalenone were not different from 100%, for Deoxynivalenol and HT-2 toxin they were larger than 89%. The extraction was also adapted to a quick screening of Aflatoxin B1 in maize by flow-injection–mass spectrometry. Semi-quantitative results were obtained through standard addition and scan-based ion ratio calculations. The method proved to be a viable greener and quicker alternative to existing methods.