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The present study investigated the dietary and urinary OTA occurrence among 44 Lebanese children. Relying on HPLC-FLD analysis, OTA was found in all the urine samples and in 46.5% and 25% of the 24 h duplicate diet and dinner samples, respectively. The means of OTA levels in positive samples were 0.32 ± 0.1 ng/g in 24 h diet, 0.32 ± 0.18 ng/g in dinner and 0.022 ± 0.012 ng/mL in urines. These values corresponded to margin of exposure (MOE) means of 7907 ± 5922 (neoplastic) and 2579 ± 1932 (non-neoplastic) calculated from positive 24 h diet, while 961 ± 599 (neoplastic) and 313 ± 195 (non-neoplastic) calculated from the urine. Since the MOE levels for the neoplastic effect were below the limit (10,000), a major health threat was detected and must be addressed as a health institutions’ priority. Besides, the wide difference between PDIs and MOEs calculated from food and urine suggests conducting further OTA’s toxicokinetics studies before using urine to measure OTA exposure.

Aflatoxins and ochratoxin A are regulated in Europe for some spices (Capsicum spp., Piper spp., Myristica fragrans, Zingiber officinale, Curcuma longa) and mixtures of spices containing one or more of these spices. No mycotoxin limits are in force for herbs. A total of 132 samples of spices (94) and herbs (38) purchased from Beirut in Lebanon were analysed for 12 mycotoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, OTA, FB1, FB2, HT-2, T-2, ZEA, DON, NIV) by using a UPLC-MS/MS method based on ‘dilute and shoot’ approach. The limits of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.1 μg/kg (ZEA) to 20.5 μg/kg (DON) and limits of quantification (LOQ) ranged from 0.3 μg/kg (ZEA) to 68.2 μg/kg (DON). 80% of analysed samples were contaminated by 1–11 mycotoxins. Total aflatoxins and ochratoxin A were detected in 19 and 30% of spices, 8 and 11% of herbs, respectively. Mean levels of total aflatoxins and ochratoxin A were 168.1 and 7.1 μg/kg in positive spices, 36.1 and 7.0 μg/kg in positive herbs, respectively. 78 and 10% of positive spice samples contained aflatoxin and ochratoxin A at levels higher than the limits, respectively. Total aflatoxin levels higher than the European limits were also measured in some non-regulated spices (allspice, cloves, coriander, fenugreek) and some herbs (rosemary, sage and oregano). Within the non-regulated mycotoxins FB1 was the most occurring (60% in spices, 55% in herbs) followed by FB2 (35% in spices, 18% in herbs), ZEA (30% in spices, 3% in herbs), DON (12% in spices, 3% in herbs), T-2 and HT-2 toxins (3–5%), whereas NIV and AFG2 were never detected. Mean levels of FB1, FB2, ZEA and DON in positive samples of spices were 6432.3, 203.2, 30.6, 1751.4 μg/kg, respectively; in positive samples of herbs they were 2826.3, 214.9, 2.8, 589.7 μg/kg, respectively. The whole results demonstrate the higher susceptibility of spices to mycotoxin contamination with respect to herbs. Comparison of results obtained for samples produced with (81) and without (51) HACCP and GMP showed that the implementation of HACCP and GMP practices seems to be effective in reducing the occurrence of regulated mycotoxins but was ineffective for the non-regulated ones. The samples analysed in this study originated from at least 15 Countries and the results obtained gives indications about the occurrence of mycotoxins in relation to the Country of origin of the samples. The high percentages of positive samples and the high levels of some mycotoxins observed in this study highlight the problem of mycotoxin contamination in spices and herbs consumed in Lebanon. The occurrence of high levels of aflatoxins and OTA in some non-regulated spices and herbs suggests the addition of these matrices in the list of regulated ones. The high number of positive samples and the high levels of fumonisins observed in this study suggest the inclusions of these mycotoxins in the list of regulated mycotoxins for these matrices.

Spices are susceptible to mycotoxin contamination which can cause gastrointestinal and adverse central nervous symptoms in humans, which highlights the importance of assessing the risk of their consumption on a daily basis. The aim of this study was to assess the risk of mycotoxin intake from spices in routinely prepared Lebanese dishes. 150 households were interviewed about their usage of 27 type of spices and 6 routinely prepared Lebanese dishes. Results showed a high variability in consumption levels. Among the investigated dishes, the minimum number of spices that were consumed in a dish was 13 while the maximum was 18. The mean intake of one spice ranged from 0.26 g/portion observed for cloves to 5.37 g/portion for cinnamon, with its intake per portion more than 1 g in 2/3 of dishes. 20% of portion sizes of coriander, cinnamon and fennel, had an intake exceeding 5 g/portion. Ochratoxin A (OTA) Probable Daily Intake (PDI) had a mean of 0.11 ng/kg-bw/day. Mean PDI of fumonisin B1 (FB1) was 79.3 ng/kg-bw/day. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) PDI had a mean of 1.55 ng/kg-bw/day. The Margin of Exposure (MOE) of AFB1 ranged from 108.10 to 4444.44. The present study showed that the risk of AFB1 from spices is a matter of concern while the risk of OTA and FB1 is limited with the exception of FB1 from garlic and onion.

Spices are susceptible to mycotoxin contamination which can cause gastrointestinal and adverse central nervous symptoms in humans, which highlights the importance of assessing the risk of their consumption on a daily basis. The aim of this study was to assess the risk of mycotoxin intake from spices in routinely prepared Lebanese dishes. 150 households were interviewed about their usage of 27 type of spices and 6 routinely prepared Lebanese dishes. Results showed a high variability in consumption levels. Among the investigated dishes, the minimum number of spices that were consumed in a dish was 13 while the maximum was 18. The mean intake of one spice ranged from 0.26 g/portion observed for cloves to 5.37 g/portion for cinnamon, with its intake per portion more than 1 g in 2/3 of dishes. 20% of portion sizes of coriander, cinnamon and fennel, had an intake exceeding 5 g/portion. Ochratoxin A (OTA) Probable Daily Intake (PDI) had a mean of 0.11 ng/kg-bw/day. Mean PDI of fumonisin B

Aflatoxins are fungal metabolites extensively produced by many different fungal species that may contaminate a wide range of agricultural food products. They have been studied extensively because of being associated with various chronic and acute diseases, especially immunosuppression and cancer, and their presence in food is strictly monitored and regulated worldwide. Aflatoxin detection and measurement relies mainly on chemical methods usually based on chromatography approaches, and recently developed immunochemical based assays that have advantages but also limitations, since these are expensive and destructive techniques. Nondestructive, optical approaches are recently being developed to assess presence of contamination in a cost and time effective way, maintaining acceptable accuracy and reproducibility. In this paper are presented the results obtained with a simple portable device for nondestructive detection of aflatoxins in almonds. The presented approach is based on the analysis of fluorescence spectra of slurried almonds under 375 nm wavelength excitation. Experiments were conducted with almonds contaminated in the range of 2.7–320.2 ng/g total aflatoxins B (AFB1 + AFB2) as determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection (HPLC/FLD). After applying pre-processing steps, spectral analysis was carried out using a binary classification model based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. A majority vote procedure was then performed on the classification results. In this way we could achieve, as best result, a classification accuracy of 94% (and false negative rate 5%) with a threshold set at 6.4 ng/g. These results illustrate the feasibility of such approach in the great challenge of aflatoxin detection for food and feed safety.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) occurrence in grapes is caused by black Aspergilli (Aspergillus carbonarius followed by A. niger) vineyards contamination. It depends on climatic conditions, geographical regions, damage by insects, and grape varieties. Good agricultural practices, pesticides, and fungicides seem adequate to manage the problem during low OTA risk vintages, but the development of new strategies is always encouraged, especially when an extremely favourable condition occurs in the vineyard. Electrolysed oxidising water (EOW) has become an interesting alternative to chemicals in agriculture, mainly during the post-harvest phase. This study tested the fungicidal efficacy of EOW generated by potassium chloride, in vitro, on black Aspergilli conidia, and detached grape berries infected by A. carbonarius. Then, during field trials on Primitivo cv vineyard treated with EOW, A. carbonarius contamination, and OTA levels were compared with Switch® fungicide treatment (0.8 g/l). Black Aspergilli conidia were killed on plate assay after 2 min of treatment by EOW containing >0.4 g/l of active chlorine. EOW (0.6 g/l active chlorine) treatment reduced the rate of A. carbonarius infections in vitro of about 87–92% on detached berries and, more than half in the field trials, although Switch® showed better performance. A significant reduction in the OTA concentration was observed for the EOW and Switch® treatments in vitro (92% and 96%, respectively), while in the field trials, although the average decrease in OTA was recorded in the treated grapes, it was not statistically significant. These results highlighted that EOW could be considered effective, as a substitute for fungicides, to reduce the contamination of A. carbonarius and OTA on grapes.

Forty-five samples of a landrace of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) widely cultivated in Basilicata (Italy) were screened for 17 mycotoxins and potential toxigenic fungal species. Two different LC-MS/MS methods were used for the determination of aflatoxins, ochratoxin A (OTA), Fusarium mycotoxins zearalenone (ZEA), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), nivalenol (NIV), deoxynivalenol (DON), T-2 and HT-2 toxins and Alternaria mycotoxins altenuene (ALT), alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), tentoxin (TTX) and tenuazonic acid (TeA). Frequency of potential toxigenic fungal species occurrence was: 87% Aspergillus Sect. Nigri; 58% Aspergillus Sect. Flavi; 38% Aspergillus Sect. Circumdati; 42% Alternaria spp.; 33% Penicillium spp. and 20% Fusarium spp. Frequency of mycotoxin occurrence and mean of positives were: 51% OTA, 29.5 µg/kg, 5 samples above the EU limit of 20 µg/kg; 31% aflatoxins, 12.8 µg/kg, two samples above the EU limit of 5 µg/kg for aflatoxin B1; 91% ZEA, 1.4 µg/kg; 78% FB2, 7.6 µg/kg; 58% FB1, 22.8 µg/kg; 38% NIV, 39.5 µg/kg; 36% DON, 6.9 µg/kg; 20% T-2 toxin, 5.6 µg/kg and 22% HT-2 toxin, 13.8 µg/kg. For the Alternaria mycotoxins, 100% of samples contained TeA, 4817.9 µg/kg; 93% TTX, 29.7 µg/kg; 56% AOH, 114.4 µg/kg; 33% AME, 13.0 µg/kg and 9% ALT, 61.7 µg/kg. Co-occurrence of mycotoxins in each sample ranged from 2 to 16 mycotoxins (mean 7). No statistical correlation was found between moulds and their mycotoxins occurrence. Within the four groups of peppers collected herein (fresh, dried, grounded and fried) higher percentages of contamination and mycotoxin levels were measured in grounded peppers, whereas much lower values were observed for fried peppers. The high percentages of positive samples and the high levels of some mycotoxins observed in this study confirm the susceptibility of peppers to mycotoxin contamination and claims for an improvement of the conditions used during production and drying process.

Metabolic profile of urine from piglets administered with single boluses contaminated with mycotoxin mixture (deoxynivalenol, aflatoxin B1, fumonisin B1, zearalenone, and ochratoxin A) were studied by 1H NMR spectroscopy and chemometrics (PCA, PLS-DA, and OPLS-DA). The mycotoxin levels were close to the established maximum and guidance levels for animal feed (2003/100/EC and 2006/576/EC). Urine samples were obtained from four groups of four piglets before (control, C) or within 24 h (treated, T) after receiving a contaminated boluses with increasing doses of mycotoxins (boluses 1–4). For the two highest dose groups, the urines were collected also after one week of wash out (W). For the two lowest doses groups no significant differences between the C and T samples were observed. By contrast, for the two highest doses groups the T urines separated from the controls for a higher relative content of creatinine, p-cresol glucuronide and phenyl acetyl glycine and lower concentration of betaine and TMAO. Interestingly, a similar profile was found for both W and T urines suggesting, at least for the highest doses used, serious alteration after a single bolus of mycotoxin mixture., Highlights • A single dose of mycotoxins mixture (DON, AFB1, FB1, ZEN, and OTA ) could produce serious impairments of gut microbiota of piglets. • The explorative metabolomic analysis on urine piglets, fed with boluses contaminated with mycotoxins mixtures, was performed. • NMR-based MVA resulted in a higher urinary concentrations of creatinine, p-cresol glucuronide and phenyl acetyl glycine and lower concentrations of betaine and TMAO after treatment with respect to own controls.

Aspergillus carbonarius is the main responsible fungus of ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination of grapes and derived products. To date, the biosynthetic mechanism of this mycotoxin has been partially elucidated. Availability of genome sequence of A. carbonarius has allowed the identification of a putative gene cluster involved in OTA biosynthesis. This region hosts the previously characterized AcOTAnrps and AcOTApks genes encoding two key enzymes of the biosynthetic pathway. At about 4,400 nucleotides downstream of these loci, a gene encoding a putative flavin dependent-halogenase came out from the annotation data. Its proximity to OTA biosynthetic genes and its sequence analysis have suggested a role in the biosynthesis of OTA, directed to the introduction of the chlorine atom in the C-5 position of the final molecular structure of this mycotoxin. The deduced protein sequence of the halogenase gene, we designated AcOTAhal , shows a high similarity to a halogenase that is located in the OTA cluster of A. niger . The deletion of the halogenase gene completely eliminated the production of ochratoxin A in A. carbonarius and determined a significant increase of ochratoxin B, as confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Moreover, its expression profile was similar to the two biosynthetic genes previously identified, AcOTApks and AcOTAnrps , indicating a strong correlation of the AcOTAhal gene with the kinetics of OTA accumulation in A. carbonarius. Therefore, experimental evidence confirmed that the chlorination step which converts OTB in OTA represents the final stage of the biosynthetic pathway, supporting our earlier hypothesis on the order of enzymatic steps of OTA biosynthesis in A. carbonarius . IMPORTANCE Ochratoxin A is a potent mycotoxin classified as a possible carcinogen for humans, and Aspergillus carbonarius is the main agent responsible for OTA accumulation in grapes. We demonstrate here that a flavin-halogenase is implicated in the biosynthesis of OTA in A. carbonarius . The encoding gene, AcOTAhal , is contiguous to biosynthetic genes that we have already described ( nrps and pks ), resulting as part of the biosynthetic cluster. The encoded protein is responsible of the introduction of chlorine atom in the final molecular structure and acts at the last step in the pathway. This study can be considered a continuation of an earlier study wherein we started to clarify the molecular basis of OTA biosynthesis in A. carbonarius , which has not been completely elucidated until now. This research represents an important step forward to a better understanding of the production mechanism, which will contribute to the development of improved control strategies to reduce the risk of OTA contamination in food products.

Pancreatic lipase, a key enzyme for lipid absorption, is one of the most important targets for the treatment of obesity, while natural compounds have recently attracted much interest as potential inhibitors of this enzyme. Here, in an attempt to find new effective agents, the methanolic extract from Moricandia arvensis (L.) DC. and its sub-extracts were investigated for their potential inhibitory activity. The ability to inhibit pancreatic lipase was verified through the in vitro evaluation of the prevention of p-nitrophenyl caprylate hydrolysis. The antioxidant activity was also verified by means of DPPH and &beta, carotene bleaching tests. Compositional profiling revealed that flavonoid glycosides were the main specialized metabolites present in the methanolic extract from the aerial parts of the plant with kaempferol and quercetin representing the two O-glycosylated aglycones. Kaempferol-3-O-&beta, (2&Prime, O-glucosyl)-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-O-a-arabinosyl-7-O-rhamnoside were the most abundant flavonols. The crude methanolic extract and the dichloromethane and ethyl acetate sub-extracts showed a strong lipase inhibitory activity, with IC50 values of 2.06 &plusmn, 0.02, 1.52 &plusmn, 0.02 and 1.31 &plusmn, 0.02 mg/mL, respectively. The best capacity to scavenge DPPH radical was detected for the ethyl acetate sub-extract (IC50 = 171.9 &plusmn, 1.0 &micro, g/mL), which was also effective in protecting linoleic acid from peroxidation (IC50 = 35.69 &plusmn, 2.30 &micro, g/mL). Obtained results support the hypothesis that M. arvensis can be a source of bioactive phytochemicals for the pharmacological inhibition of dietary lipids absorption.

Twelve different approaches commonly used for the simultaneous LC tandem MS (MS/MS) determination of mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, T-2 and HT-2 toxins, fumonisins, and zearalenone) were tested in cereals and feed materials. They comprised different extraction solvents, types of cleanup [solid-phase extraction, QuEChERS, and immunoaffinity (IMA)], and calibration approaches (external or matrix-matched). The percentage of mycotoxins with acceptable recovery, according to Regulation (EC) No. 401/2006, ranged from 9 to 100%. The approach giving the highest percentage of acceptable results was selected and further tested for corn, rice, and feed spiked at three different mycotoxin levels (low, medium, and high). The method is based on extraction with MeOH–water (70 + 30, v/v) and cleanup with two multiantibody IMA columns. For corn and rice spiked at low mycotoxin levels, a significant matrix effect was observed and was compensated by using 13C calibration. At higher mycotoxin levels (medium and high), matrix effects were negligible as no significant differences were observed for the majority of recovery results calculated by 13C calibration and external calibration. Although the proposed method still needs improvement in terms of accuracy and, to a lesser extent, precision, it was successfully tested with four proficiency tests in buckwheat, corn, rice, and feed, giving acceptable z-scores for 97% (34 out of 35) of results.

Mycotoxin producing moulds may contaminate numerous agricultural commodities either before harvest or during storage. A varied diet consisting of different foods may therefore be contaminated with a range of mycotoxins. The aim of the present study was to study concurrent exposure to mycotoxins through urinary multi-biomarker analysis, as well as its possible associations with the diet.Urinary samples from 252 adults, participating in the Swedish national dietary survey Riksmaten 2010-11, were collected together with a 4-day diet record. Concurrent mycotoxin exposure was studied using a multi-biomarker LC-MS/MS method. The results revealed that exposure to mycotoxins is common and concurrent exposure to more than one toxin was found in 69% of the study population. However, when comparing the number of toxins detected with the reported consumption data it was difficult to distinguish food patterns which would indicate an increased risk of exposure to many mycotoxins simultaneously.This is the first study to investigate concurrent mycotoxin exposure and urinary levels of fumonisin B1 (FB1), fumonisin B2 (FB2), nivalenol (NIV), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEA), ?-zearalenol (?-ZOL), ?-zearalenol (?-ZOL) and de-epoxydeoxynivalenol (DOM-1) among adults in Sweden.

Subsistence farmers are exposed to a range of mycotoxins. This study applied novel urinary multi-mycotoxin LC-MS/MS methods to determine multiple exposure biomarkers in the high oesophageal cancer region, Transkei, South Africa. Fifty-three female participants donated part of their maize-based evening meal and first void morning urine, which was analysed both with sample clean-up (single and multi-biomarker) and by a 'dilute-and-shoot' multi-biomarker method. Results were corrected for recovery with LOD for not detected. A single biomarker method detected fumonisin B1 (FB1) (87% incidence; mean ± standard deviation 0.342 ± 0.466 ng/mg creatinine) and deoxynivalenol (100%; mean 20.4 ± 49.4 ng/mg creatinine) after hydrolysis with b-glucuronidase. The multi-biomarker 'dilute-and-shoot' method indicated deoxynivalenol-15-glucuronide was predominantly present. A multi-biomarker method with b-glucuronidase and immunoaffinity clean-up determined zearalenone (100%; 0.529 ± 1.60 ng/mg creatinine), FB1 (96%; 1.52 ± 2.17 ng/mg creatinine), a-zearalenol (92%; 0.614 ± 1.91 ng/mg creatinine), deoxynivalenol (87%; 11.3 ± 27.1 ng/mg creatinine), b-zearalenol (75%; 0.702 ± 2.95 ng/mg creatinine) and ochratoxin A (98%; 0.041 ± 0.086 ng/mg creatinine). These demonstrate the value of multi-biomarker methods in measuring exposures in populations exposed to multiple mycotoxins. This is the first finding of urinary deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, their conjugates, ochratoxin A and zearalenols in Transkei.

The efficacy of color sorting on reducing aflatoxin levels in shelled apricot kernels was assessed. Naturally-contaminated kernels were submitted to an electronic optical sorter or blanched, peeled, and manually sorted to visually identify and sort discolored kernels (dark and spotted) from healthy ones. The samples obtained from the two sorting approaches were ground, homogenized, and analysed by HPLC-FLD for their aflatoxin content. A mass balance approach was used to measure the distribution of aflatoxins in the collected fractions. Aflatoxin B1 and B2 were identified and quantitated in all collected fractions at levels ranging from 1.7 to 22,451.5 µg/kg of AFB1 + AFB2, whereas AFG1 and AFG2 were not detected. Excellent results were obtained by manual sorting of peeled kernels since the removal of discolored kernels (2.6%–19.9% of total peeled kernels) removed 97.3%–99.5% of total aflatoxins. The combination of peeling and visual/manual separation of discolored kernels is a feasible strategy to remove 97%–99% of aflatoxins accumulated in naturally-contaminated samples. Electronic optical sorter gave highly variable results since the amount of AFB1 + AFB2 measured in rejected fractions (15%–18% of total kernels) ranged from 13% to 59% of total aflatoxins. An improved immunoaffinity-based HPLC-FLD method having low limits of detection for the four aflatoxins (0.01–0.05 µg/kg) was developed and used to monitor the occurrence of aflatoxins in 47 commercial products containing apricot kernels and/or almonds commercialized in Italy. Low aflatoxin levels were found in 38% of the tested samples and ranged from 0.06 to 1.50 μg/kg for AFB1 and from 0.06 to 1.79 μg/kg for total aflatoxins.

Humans and animals can be simultaneously exposed through the diet to different mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, and fumonisins, which are the most important. Evaluation of the frequency and levels of human and animal exposure to these mycotoxins can be performed by measuring the levels of the relevant biomarkers in urine. Available data on the toxicokinetics of these mycotoxins in animals suggest that aflatoxin M(1) (AFM(1)), ochratoxin A (OTA), deoxynivalenol (DON)/de-epoxydeoxynivalenol (DOM-1), alpha-zearalenol (α-ZOL)/beta-zearalenol (β-ZOL), and fumonisin B(1) (FB(1)) can be used as urinary biomarkers. A liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric method has been developed for simultaneous determination of these mycotoxin biomarkers in human or animal urine. Urine samples were purified and concentrated by a double cleanup approach, using a multitoxin immunoaffinity column and a reversed-phase SPE Oasis HLB column. Separation of the biomarkers was performed by reversed-phase chromatography using a multi-step linear methanol-water gradient containing 0.5% acetic acid as mobile phase. Detection and quantification of the biomarkers were performed by triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). The clean-up conditions were optimised to obtain maximum analyte recovery and high sensitivity. Recovery from spiked samples was performed at four levels in the range 0.03-12 ng mL(-1), using matrix-matched calibration curves for quantification. Mean recoveries of the biomarkers tested ranged from 62 to 96% with relative standard deviations of 3-20%. Enzymatic digestion with β-glucuronidase/sulfatase resulted in increased concentrations of the biomarkers, in both human and pig urine, in most samples containing measurable concentrations of DON, DOM-1, OTA, α-ZOL, or β-ZOL. A highly variable increase was observed between individuals. Co-occurrence of OTA and DON in human urine is reported herein for the first time.

Grape pomaces are increasingly being used as starting material in the industrial production of plant food supplements (PFS), food coloring, and tartrates, but they are at risk of ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination, a mycotoxin with nephrotoxic and carcinogenic effects. We analyzed 24 commercial PFS and 13 food coloring samples derived from Vitis vinifera, mainly pomaces, using a HPLC-FLD method for OTA determination. OTA was found in 75% of PFS samples and 69% of food coloring samples at levels of

A liquid chromatographic method for the determination of fumonisins B1 (FB1) and B2 (FB2) in corn-based foods for infants and young children was subjected to an interlaboratory validation study involving 11 laboratories. Five blind duplicate sample pairs of each matrix were analyzed to establish the accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility of the method. Mass fractions in the baby food samples ranged from 89.1 to 384.4 μg/kg FB1 and from 22.5 to 73.6 μg/kg FB2. The method involved a warm extraction with citrate phosphate buffer–methanol–acetonitrile (50 + 25 + 25, v/v/v), a cleanup through an immunoaffinity column, and an end-determination of fumonisins by LC after automated precolumn derivatization with-o-phthaldialdehyde reagent. RSDs for within- laboratory repeatability (RSDr) ranged from 6.8 to 23.5% for FB1 and 7.6 to 22.9% for FB2. RSDs for between-laboratory reproducibility (RSDR) ranged from 15.4 to 26.2% for FB1 and 21.6 to 36.3% for FB2. Mean FB1 recoveries from baby foods spiked at 100.0 and 250.0 μg/kg were 89 and 96%, respectively; for FB2 spiked foods at 25.0 and 62.5 μg/kg recoveries were 90 and 85%, respectively. HorRat values ranged from 0.8 to 1.2 for FB1, whereas for FB2 they ranged from 0.9 to 1.4 when calculated according to Horwitz, and from 1.0 to 1.7 when calculated according to Thompson, indicating an acceptable among- laboratory precision for all matrixes (HorRat values