Instrument Development for Rapid and Non-invasive Aflatoxin Detection in Corn

Yao, H., Hruska, Z., Kincaid, R., Ononye, A., Brown, R., Cleveland, T., & Bhatnagar, D. (2009). Instrument Development for Rapid and Non-invasive Aflatoxin Detection in Corn. Aflatoxin Workshop 2009 Abstracts. Starkville, MS.

Abstract

Aflatoxin contaminated corn is toxic to domestic animals when ingested in feed and is a known carcinogen associated with liver and lung cancer in humans. For this reason, aflatoxin levels in food and feed are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. Nowadays, aflatoxin detection and quantification methods are based on analytical tests. These include either chromatography methods such as thin-layer chromatography (TCL) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or immunochemical methods such as radioimmunoassay (RIA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and immunoaffinity column assay (ICA). These analytical tests require the destruction of samples, and are costly and time consuming. Thus, the ability to detect aflatoxin in a rapid, non-invasive way is crucial to the grain industry, particularly to corn industry. Currently, MSU and USDA are working together on a collaborative search in this direction. This study reports some results from this research in developing near real-time, non-invasive instruments using fluorescence hyperspectral imaging technology for aflatoxin detection in corn.