A Point-of-Care Assay Based on Reflective Phantom Interface (RPI) Technology for Fast, Multi-Toxin Screening in Wheat

Abstract

Mycotoxigenic fungi can colonize small grain cereals causing severe yield losses and grain contaminations. Fusaria can be responsible for the contamination of wheat grains and derived products via several classes of mycotoxins, negatively impacting human and animal health. Among the strategies to control mycotoxins are analytical tools for their identification and quantification from field to food and feed. A fast multi-toxin assay based on reflective phantom interface (RPI) technology was developed to identify and quantify deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, and T-2/HT-2 toxins. The PRX analytical workflow was organized as follows: a fast mycotoxins extraction step followed by an analytical step carried out in a system composed of three elements: (I) a universal reader able to read a series of (II) cartridges that incorporate the RPI technology and (III) a software that analyzes data and gives feedback on the results. The assay was evaluated in wheat reference samples at known levels of toxin contaminations and on naturally contaminated grain samples. The results obtained suggest that the assay can be considered a useful screening tool for point-of-care and point-of-sale control of toxins contamination along wheat production and transformation chains.