Survey of T-2 and HT-2 toxins in soybean and soy meal from Argentina using immunoaffinity clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography

Soybean and soy meal samples collected during the harvest season 2008-2009 in the soybean-growing area of Cordoba Province in Argentina were analysed for T-2 and HT-2 toxins occurrence. These mycotoxins were detected using HPLC analysis with fluorescence detection after derivatisation with 1-anthronylnitrile and immunoaffinity column clean-up. Characteristics of in-house validated method such as accuracy, precision, detection and quantification limits were defined by means of recovery test with spiked soybean and soy meal samples. Mean recoveries for T-2 within the spiking range 125-500 mu g/kg, were 90.9 and 81.3% for soybean and soy meal, respectively with a within-laboratory relative standard deviation < 10%. Analysis of samples spiked with HT-2 in the same range gave a mean recovery of 70.2 and 77.5% for soybean and soy meal, respectively, with relative standard deviations < 12%. The limit of detection for the method was 25 mu g/kg for T-2 and HT-2, based on a signal-to-noise ratio 3:1 and the limit of quantification was established as three times the detection limit. Out of 64 samples, only two soybean samples showed contamination with A-type trichothecenes evaluated. Confirmatory analyses of the contaminated samples were performed by LC-MS/MS. This study demonstrated low incidences and levels of T-2 and HT-2 in soybean harvested among the areas in the Cordoba Province.