Investigation of various extractants for the analysis of aflatoxin B1 in different food and feed matrices.

Various extractants were investigated concerning their suitability for aflatoxin B1 determinations in different matrices including spices, infant formula and animal feed employing an immunoaffinity clean-up procedure. It was shown that the use of aqueous acetonitrile extractants was limited due to the fact that dry sample material can absorb significant amounts of water from the extractant. This can result in recoveries that are too high and therefore in incorrect values for the aflatoxin concentration if aliquots are taken for further analysis. A correction of the results by recovery calculation using spiked blank material is unsuitable, since material from the same group of food (e.g. paprika powder) or feed can vary significantly in the recovery values. Therefore it is recommended that aqueous methanol extractants are used, since no significant interaction with matrix constituents was observed. In addition, aqueous acetone extractants are a useful alternative with some limitations.