Mycotoxins in food, recent development in food analysis and future challenges; a review

Mycotoxins are known as natural food toxins produced by certain fungi grown on various crops during pre-harvest and post-harvest conditions. During analysis, sample selection and extraction followed by clean-up is an essential process for accurate detection. These steps ensured the accuracy, precision as well as the reliability, and reproducibility of results. There are various techniques available for the detection of mycotoxins in food and food products. However, Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is the most widely used technique. It can be used effectively to detect multiple mycotoxins as well as masked or modified mycotoxins with acceptable accuracy and precision. Therefore, the review has focused on discussing the co-occurrence, masked mycotoxins, sampling, the extraction of mycotoxins, and LC-MS/MS as an analytical tool for the accurate and precise detection mycotoxins.

Automated summary

Mycotoxins are natural food toxins produced by fungi on various crops. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is the most widely used technique for accurate detection of multiple mycotoxins, including masked or modified forms.