Co-occurrence of five Fusarium toxins in corn-Dried Distiller’s Grains with Solubles in Thailand and comparison of ELISA and LC-MS/MS for fumonisin analysis

Dried Distiller’s Grains with Solubles (DDGS), a by-product of bio-ethanol production from maize and other cereals, is increasingly used as a feed additive. In this study, five Fusarium toxins, including fumonisin B₁ (FB₁), fumonisin B₂ (FB₂), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN) and beauvericin (BEA) were quantified by LC-MS/MS in 59 corn-DDGS samples. In addition, the fumonisin level in 30 randomly selected-samples was compared using an ELISA detection technique. No sample was free from mycotoxin contamination, and 50.8 % of the samples were co-contaminated with all five mycotoxins. Moreover, toxin levels were generally high, with mean levels of 9 mg kg⁻¹ FB₁, 6 mg kg⁻¹ FB₂, 1.2 mg kg⁻¹ DON, 0.9 mg kg⁻¹ ZEN, and 0.35 mg kg⁻¹ BEA. Maximum levels for FB₁ (143 mg kg⁻¹) and FB₂ (125 mg kg⁻¹) are of acute toxicological relevance. The ELISA method had a tendency to underestimate the fumonisin content when compared with LC-MS/MS. Finally, this is the first reported beauvericin contamination in corn-DDGS.