Determination of aflatoxins in food products by chromatography

Several chromatographic methods for the determination of aflatoxins in agricultural and food products are reviewed. During the past two decades, identification and determination of aflatoxins were done by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) because it was easy, fast and inexpensive. However, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using fluorescence detection is now the method of choice for determining aflatoxins and is also growing in popularity for their identification. The reasons for selecting HPLC over TLC can be summarized as the ability to analyze for a wide variety of compounds, including compounds that are easily degraded by heat, light or air, the ease of adaptation to confirmatory procedures, the potential for automation and the dramatic improvement in instrumentation, including the development of increasingly sensitive fluorescence and electrochemical detectors and short, high-resolution, reversed-phase columns.