FEASIBILITY STUDY OF OCHRATOXIN A REFERENCE MATERIAL PRODUCTION AND IDENTIFICATION USING LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS SPECTROMETRY
Authors: Badrul Hisyam Zainudin, Amira Syafiqah Harith, Aznie Aida Ahmad, Suzannah Sharif, Muhd Fauzi Safian
Journal Issue: Malaysian Cocoa Journal, Volume 15(2)/2023
Keywords: Reference material, Ochratoxin A, Cocoa beans, Food safety, LC-MS/MS
Published On: 27/10/2023
Abstract
Cocoa is an important agricultural commodity with technical barriers for exportation because of possible contamination with ochratoxin A (OTA), a mycotoxin nephrotoxic and carcinogenic. The maximum limit for OTA in cocoa beans is not stated and can only be found in cocoa powder which is 3.0 μg/kg stated by European Union. This paper describes the development of a candidate reference material (RM) of OTA in cocoa beans. The RM quantitation was based on the extraction method using QuEChRES with slight modification. The obtained recovery at spiking levels of 2 and 5 ng/g ranged between 93.5–110.7 % with relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 15.5 %. The method was successfully applied to the feasibility study of the reference material which defined the procedure for the preparation of the cocoa beans with a certain amount of OTA contamination. It was produced by spiking blank cocoa beans with OTA standard, mixing and filling in an amber bottle with 50 g each, and storing at 15 °C. The homogeneity study showed that there were no significant differences between the bottles via ANOVA test and samples were stable for 16 months in the stability study. The results obtained show that the production of the reference material is doable and possible as this material will be an important tool for quality control in laboratories.