Current situation on analysis of marine toxins

Abstract

Marine toxins are a food safety concern worldwide. This review discusses current analytical methods for those toxins that are legally regulated in Europe, namely domoic acid, saxitoxin, okadaic acid, yessotoxin, pectenotoxin and azaspiracids, and all their analogues, and those that are not regularly monitored but are a threat to humans, such as tetrodotoxin, ciguatoxins and cyclic imines. Because of legislative changes that were implemented in 2011, most legally required methods are chromatographic. Saxitoxin and domoic acid are monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescent and ultraviolet detection, respectively. All other toxins are monitored nowadays by means of chromatographic separation and mass spectrometry detection.