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Mycotoxins

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by molds. They can have serious acute and chronic effects on the health of humans as well as animals. Mycotoxin analysis of food and feed is therefore necessary and often required by legislation. Modern test kits allow rapid qualitative and quantitative analysis of mycotoxins.

Plant based aquaculture feed has a high risk of contamination with mycotoxins, especially in countries with humid tropical climates. Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by molds and can accumulate in various agricultural products. Mycotoxins have adverse effects on fish live stocks, like poor growth rates, low body weight gain and high mortality depending on the fish species and the mycotoxin. Thus, a proper risk assessment is important to minimize the exposure of aquacultures to mycotoxins and to avoid economical losses.

Vitamins

Many foods are fortified with vitamins, for example juices, dairy products, baby food, cereals, sweets, tablets and vitamin mixtures. We offer test kits to measure the exact concentration of vitamins in foods. ELISAs and Immunoaffinity columns are available to enable sample extraction for follow through estimation on HPLC or MS.

Nowadays food, feed and pharmaceutical products are being fortified with vitamins on a regular level. Analysis is required to comply with legal regulations; to confirm that the declared vitamin content is indeed available in the product and the marketing claims of the producers are justified.

Antibiotics, hormones, anabolic residues, and chemical contaminants

When food producing animals are treated with antibiotics, hormones or anabolics, drug residues remain in the animal’s meat and milk. These residues may bear health risks for consumers. Our product portfolio includes various test systems, such as enzyme immunoassays (ELISAs), lateral flow assays and immunoaffinity columns for the detection of hormones, anabolics, antibiotics and other drug residues in different matrices.

Histamines

Histamine is produced in fish during storage and can exceed levels of 1000 mg/kg. Several countries have set maximum tolerance levels for histamine due to its potential for human illness (commonly referred to as “scombroid poisoning”). The limit value for fish and fishery products is between 50 and 200 mg/kg depending on the fish species. Species that contain high levels of histamine are e.g. tuna, mackerel, sardines and anchovy. Fish of good quality should contain less than 10 mg/kg histamine.