Reliability of mycotoxin assays--an update

The precision parameters of the method-performance (collaborative) studies for mycotoxins published in the literature through 1991 have been recalculated on a uniform basis by following the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry protocol. About 80% of the 793 accepted assays for mycotoxins, almost all of which have been conducted by thin-layer chromatography (TLC), liquid chromatography (LC), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), exhibit relative standard deviations among laboratories (RSDR) that are less than 2 times the values predicted from the Horwitz equation: RSDR, % = 2(1-0.5log10C) where C is the concentration expressed as a decimal fraction. The precision of TLC and LC methods is about the same, but that of ELISA is somewhat poorer. For those commodities for which sufficient data exist to provide a meaningful comparison, the methods applied to cottonseed products have the best precision and corn the worst, with peanuts intermediate. Overall, however, the primary factor affecting RSDR is concentration, more or less independent of analyte, method, matrix, and age of the study. If it is assumed that the test results are normally distributed and that an RSDR of 50% is the point where effective control of the results begins to be lost (a value equivalent to the production of 2% false-negative values), then relying on the Horwitz curve, the limit of quantitative measurement is the single digit, i.e., 5, micrograms/kg (10(-9); ppb) concentration for solid food commodities. Such a value must be considered as a limit applicable to a single analyte, aflatoxin B1, and not as a mean, and not applicable to the sum of the individual components, each of whose associated standard deviation would lie in the unacceptable region. Enforcement of a 5 micrograms aflatoxin B1/kg limit, under the assumptions made, requires that a responsible manufacturer and a prudent regulator operate at opposite extremes of tolerance limits: e.g., the producer at 2 micrograms/kg and the consumer at 10. A proposed Codex "maximum level" of 0.05 micrograms aflatoxin M1/kg milk cannot be supported by the available data applied in an interlaboratory enforcement environment. These conclusions are also supported by an examination of the reported data from the ongoing, large-scale proficiency studies routinely performed by the American Oil Chemists' Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.