The development of five animal feed reference materials, certified for their aflatoxin B1 content

The development of three peanut meal and two compound feed reference materials and the certification of their aflatoxin B1 content is described. The materials were prepared and certified within the Measurements and Testing Programme of the Commission of the European Communities as part of a broad activity to improve accuracy and agreement of results of measurements on food and agriculture. RM 262 (peanut meal) was prepared from uncontaminated peanut products. RM 263 and RM 264 (peanut meals) were prepared from naturally contaminated peanuts which were blended with uncontaminated ones, to achieve the desired aflatoxin B1 mass fractions. RM 375 and RM 376 (compound feeds) were made by blending decontaminated dairy feed together with commercial feed ration and contaminated dairy feed with several feed compounds, respectively. Details are given of the preparation and the investigations to verify homogeneity and stability of the materials. The certification exercise was carried out by 17 laboratories using a variety of extraction and clean-up procedures. Most laboratories used liquid chromatography as the determinative step, although operating under a variety of chromatographic conditions. A few laboratories applied thin layer chromatography with densitometric quantification. Peanut meal RM 262 was certified as containing aflatoxin B1 at a mass fraction of < 3 micrograms/kg, RM 263 at 43.3 +/- 2.1 micrograms/kg and RM 264 at 204 +/- 10 micrograms/kg. Compound feed RM 375 was certified as containing aflatoxin B1 at a mass fraction of < 1 micrograms/kg and RM 376 at 9.2 +/- 0.5 micrograms/kg. The materials can be employed either to establish or confirm a calibration curve, or to check the performance of a method.