A High Throughput Screening HPLC-FLD Method for Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PSTs) Enabling Effective Official Control

Area of Science:

• Marine Biotoxins and Food Safety
• Analytical Chemistry Methods
• Environmental Monitoring

Background:

• Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PSTs) are marine biotoxins from dinoflagellates that accumulate in shellfish, posing a human health risk.
• European regulations mandate new analytical methods for PSTs, moving away from the Mouse Bioassay towards validated instrumental techniques.
• Official control laboratories require efficient and economical methods to comply with new regulations and ensure public safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel presence/absence test for PSTs with a specific cut-off value.
• To provide a rapid screening tool for official laboratories to differentiate low-level PST contamination from samples requiring full quantitative analysis.
• To develop an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional methods for PST detection in shellfish.

Main Methods:

• Development and validation of a new presence/absence test for PSTs.
• Implementation of a simplified screening approach with a cut-off at 600 μg STX·2HCl eqv/kg.
• Application of the validated method to mollusk samples collected from the Marche region.

Main Results:

• The new method demonstrated good performance with repeatability <11% and recovery between 53-106%.
• The test efficiently discriminates samples with very low PST levels from those needing confirmatory analysis.
• The protocol was validated and accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025 standards.

Conclusions:

• The developed presence/absence test is an efficient, economical screening instrument for official control laboratories.
• This method supports compliance with new EU regulations for PST analysis in bivalves.
• The validated test enables faster and more cost-effective monitoring of marine toxins in shellfish.