Survey for fumonisin B1 in Korean corn-based food products

Seventy-six corn-based foods collected in Seoul, Korea, including corn flakes, corn snack, cornstarch, corn for popping, roasted corn for tea, canned sweet corn and other corn products were analysed for the occurrence of fumonisin B(1) (FB(1)) by using direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (dcELISA) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The average recoveries of FB(1) from the corn flakes sample in the range 5-1000 ng g(-1) were 104% by dcELISA and 82% by HPLC. The limits of detection were approximately 5 ng g(-1) by dcELISA and 20 ng g(-1) by HPLC. The incidences and mean levels of FB were 73.3, 78.6, 50, 58.3, 17.6 and 40% and 41.8, 67.9, 114, 256, 172 and 22 ng g(-1) from corn flakes, corn snack, corn starch, corn for popping, roasted corn for tea and other corn products, respectively, by dcELISA. No FB(1) was found in canned sweet corn. The results obtained by dcELISA were correlated to those by HPLC for FB(1) (r(2) = 0.992). This is the first report on the occurrence of FB(1) in corn-based foods in Korea.