Mycotoxin tests

Mycotoxins are poisonous metabolic products from moulds, which are naturally common. We provide analysis services for our customers to test for all relevant mycotoxins which affect the health of animals.

Mycotoxins are poisonous metabolic products from moulds and they can contaminate all kinds of crops. The moulds are very common; their spores can reproduce and their growth is rapid when the conditions are favourable, where they produce the dangerous mycotoxins.

The LUFA Institute for Feed Analysis offers customers testing for all mycotoxins relevant in food production processes and the health of animals.

The following can be analysed:

• deoxynivalenol (DON)
• zearalenon (ZEA)
• aflatoxin (B1, B2, G1 and G2)
• ochratoxin A (OTA)
• fumonisins

The most reliable results are achieved using the so-called HPLC method. This is an analysis with several phases with complex sample purification which leads to very reproducible results. The HPLC method can be used for all kinds of feedstuffs and is available for almost all mycotoxin analyses.

Alongside the above, testing for fusarium toxins (DON and ZEA) is also available using the ELISA method for targeted screening. We recommend this method for differentiating grain with unproblematic and increased mycotoxin levels.

The relatively price worthy ELISA method, which functions without the necessity of complex sample purification, can be used to detect higher level presence of fusarium toxins, which should then be determined more exactly using the HPLC method. If wished for explicitly by customers, we also offer ELISA testing for commercial feedstuffs. We have recently begun offering testing for fumonisins, but only using the ELISA method.