• Universitat de València (50%)
• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (50%)

• Consuelo Agulló Blanes
• Antonio Abad Fuentes
• Josep Vicent Mercader Badia

Biotoxins are a type of contaminant whose presence in food, water and animal feed is a problem for human halth and animal welfare, causing significant economic losses to the agri-food, farming and fish farming sectors. The most frequently detected class of biotoxins in food are those produced by fungi, called mycotoxins. Citrinin is a mycotoxin produced by several fungal species, is nephrotoxic and is considered a group 3 carcinogen. This mycotoxin is formed after harvest and appears mainly in stored grains, but also in other plant products such as beans, fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, and in spoiled dairy products. The worldwide presence of citrinin in certain foods at high levels, combined with its adverse health effects, is encouraging the implementation of new regulations for this mycotoxin, and methods for its detection are needed.

Researchers from Universitat de València and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas have developed the reagents (haptens, bioconjugates and antibodies) necessary for the immunochemical determination of citrinin, and have developed rapid methods for the determination of this molecule with high sensitivity, selectivity and minimal sample preparation. The determination by immunoassay is a low-cost, simple method of analysis with high sampling capacity, thus overcoming the limitations of conventional analytical techniques.

The main application of the technology is in agri-food, farming and fish farming sectors, as procedure for determination, both qualitatively and quantitatively, of citrinin.

The most remarkable advantages provided by this technology are:

• Simpler determination than using instrumental analytical techniques.
• Rapidity and ability to process high number of samples.
• Less sample pretreatment compared with conventional methods.
• Ability to carry out in situ analyses with immunotests.
• Low cost determination.

• Patent applied