Determination of sterigmatocystin in cheese by high performance liquid chromatography – tandem masspectrometry

Aleksandrs Versilovskis (1, 2) , Carlos van Peteghem (3) , Sarah de Saeger (4)

1 Department of Chemistry
2 Department of Bio-Analysis
3 Pharmacy Department
4 Laboratory of Food Analysis

Different cheese samples, produced in Latvia (8) and Belgium (13), were analysed for their sterigmatocystin (STC) content. Only two (9.5 %) of the analysed samples were positive for STC with concentration levels of 1.23 and 0.52 µg kg-1 respectively. Five (24%) samples contained STC above the limit of detection (0.03 µg kg-1) but below the limit of quantification (0.1 µg kg-1), while five samples contained traces of STC. A sensitive liquid chromatography – electrospray positive ionization – tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method, which was developed before for the analysis of STC in grains, was modified and applied to the analysis of STC in cheese. This method consists of sample extraction with acetonitrile:water (90:10, v/v), defatting with n-hexane, solid phase extraction, separation on a reversed phase C18 column and STC detection by LC-MS/MS.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Aleksandrs Versilovskis, Carlos van Peteghem, Sarah de Saeger. Determination of sterigmatocystin in cheese by high performance liquid chromatography – tandem masspectrometry. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2009, 26 (01), pp.127-133. ⟨10.1080/02652030802342497⟩. ⟨hal-00577304⟩