Determination of deoxynivalenol in organic and conventional food and feed by sol–gel immunoaffinity chromatography and HPLC–UV detection

The paper describes the determination of deoxynivalenol (DON) in 55 wheat food and feed samples, 26 from conventional and 29 from organic production. Immunoaffinity columns prepared by entrapping anti-DON antibodies by the sol–gel method were used for sample clean-up. DON was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultraviolet (UV) detection. In general, the incidence of DON contamination was rather low. In eight samples (14.5%) the DON concentration was above the LOQ (380 ng/g), in six samples (10.9%) DON was detected but could not be quantified (>LOD (200 ng/g), <LOQ). In seven conventional samples (two pasta, two cookie, two snack and one feed sample) but only in one organic sample (a snack) the DON concentration was >LOQ. The data indicate both a higher incidence of DON contamination and higher DON concentrations in food and feed samples from conventional than in those from organic production.