Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Raleigh, North Carolina » Market Quality and Handling Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #172317
Title: SAMPLING FEEDS FOR MYCOTOXIN ANALYSIS

Author
item Whitaker, Thomas
item Johansson, Anders
item Slate, Andrew

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2005
Publication Date: 5/1/2005
Citation: Whitaker, T.B., Johansson, A.S., Slate, A.B. 2005. Sampling feeds for mycotoxin analysis. Book Chapter. pp. 1-23.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A mycotoxin-sampling plan is defined by a mycotoxin test procedure and a defined accept/reject limit. A mycotoxin test procedure is a complicated process and generally consists of several steps: (a) a sample is taken from the lot, (b) the sample is ground (comminuted) in a mill to reduce particle size, (c) a subsample is removed from the comminuted sample, and (d) the mycotoxin is extracted from the comminuted subsample and quantified. Even when using accepted test procedures, there is variability associated with each step of the mycotoxin test procedure. Because of this variability, the true mycotoxin concentration in the lot cannot be determined with 100 percent certainty by measuring the mycotoxin concentration in a sample taken from the lot. The variability for each step of the mycotoxin test procedure, as measured by the variance statistic, is shown to increase with mycotoxin concentration. Results are presented to show that sampling is usually the largest source of variability associated with the mycotoxin test procedure. Sampling variability is large because a small percentage of kernels are contaminated and the level of contamination on a single seed can be very large. Methods to reduce sampling, sample preparation, and analytical variability are discussed.