Occurrence of fourteen mycotoxins in tiger-nuts

A previous developed matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) extraction method was applied for the routine analysis of aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), beauvericin (BEA), nivalenol (NIV), deoxynivalenol (DON), the toxin T-2 (T-2), toxin HT-2 (HT-2), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS) and zearalenone (ZEN) in tiger-nuts by liquid chromatography–triple-quadrupole linear ion trap (HPLC–QTRAP®). The extraction solid support used was C18, while the elution solvent was acetonitrile/methanol (50/50, v/v) 1 mM ammonium formate. Using matrix-matched calibration, recoveries and repeatabilities were in the range 67–89% and 2–11% relative standard deviation (RSD), respectively. The method was applied to determine the occurrence of the fourteen selected mycotoxins in a total of 83 tiger-nut samples purchased from different local markets of Valencian Community (Spain) during (March–June 2010 and March–May 2011). DON, OTA, AFs and BEA were detected in 26 samples of the total number of samples