Investigations on the change of fumonisin content of maize during hydrothermal treatment of maize. Analysis by means of HPLC methods and ELISA

The study was subjected to the investigation of the effects of extrusion cooking, gelatinization, and cornflaking on the stability of fumonisins in artificially contaminated maize grits, spiked with fumonisin B₁ and B₂ at levels of 2 mg/kg and 0.6 mg/kg, respectively. All the processed samples were analyzed according to the AOAC-HPLC method, and some selected samples were analyzed additionally by a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and after alkaline hydrolysis. All the samples showed significant decreases of the fumonisin levels. If analyzed according to AOAC-HPLC method, cooking extrusion and gelatinization reduced fumonisin levels to approximately 30-55%, cooking the grits for flaking to approximately 20-65%, and roasting the flakes to approximately 6-35% (depending on the selected technological parameters). With ELISA the fumonisin contents were 15-50% and after alkaline hydrolysis 19-380% higher than with the AOAC-HPLC method. However, the fumonisin amount added before the technological tests could not be recovered in any of the samples.