Simultaneous analysis of twenty-six mycotoxins in durum wheat grain from Italy

Abstract A multi-mycotoxin analysis method based on liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry was validated and applied for the determination of twenty-six mycotoxins, including eight trichothecenes, three fumonisins, sterigmatocystin, ochratoxin A, four aflatoxins, zearalenone, five “emerging” mycotoxins and three Alternaria mycotoxins in 74 durum wheat samples from central Italy. Eighty-eight percent of the analysed samples contained one or more mycotoxins, with enniatin B showing the highest contamination levels (78% of samples with levels ranging from 23 to 1826 ng/g), followed by enniatin B1 (10–1384 ng/g) and deoxynivalenol (48–2267 ng/g). This work gives an…