Determination of trichothecenes and zearalenones in grain cereal, flour and bread by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Although analytical methods have been already reported for legislated mycotoxins as trichothecenes and zearalenone (ZON) separately, we describe the optimization of a simple and rapid multimycotoxin method for the determination of a total of 12 mycotoxins simultaneously, nine trichothecenes (NIV, DON, FUS-X, DAS, 15-AcDON, 3-AcDON, NEO, HT-2, T-2 T2), and zearalenone and its metabolites (ZON, α-ZOL, β-ZOL), of different origin (wheat, oat, barley and spelt) and in three different products where these substance can be present (grain, flour and bread) reach the food chain and cause toxic effect either in humans or animals. The extraction procedure was based on a mixture of acetonitrile/water (84/16, v/v), which provided the highest recoveries and the lowest matrix effect. DON-d1 was used as internal standard (I.S.) which helped to compensate the significant matrix effect observed for some matrices, and to obtain high success in the method validation and to reach the parameters compiled in Commission Decision, 2002/657/EC. Analytes were determinate by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Relative recoveries obtained were higher than 70% for the studied mycotoxins the four cereal. Good linearity (r2 > 0.992) was obtained and quantification limits (2.5–25 ng/g) were below European regulatory levels. Repeatability, expressed as relative standard deviation, was always lower than 11%, whereas interday precision was lower than 11% for the developed method.