Preparation and characterization of an immunoaffinity column for the selective extraction of aflatoxin B1 in 13 kinds of foodstuffs

• A home-made AFB1-IAC was prepared and characterized.
• The IAC purified sufu and lobster sauce for the first time.
• The AFB1-IAC was applied to the determination of AFB1 in 13 kinds of food samples.
• The conditions of the IAC were optimized.
• A rapid, specific and precise IAC–UPLC–MS/MS method was developed and validated.

A rapid and reliable immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up based ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in cereals, peanuts, vegetable oils and Chinese traditional food products like sufu and lobster sauce. The immunoaffinity column of AFB1 (AFB1-IAC) was prepared by coupling CNBr-activated Sepharose-4B with the anti-AFB1 monoclonal antibody. The column capacity of IAC was over 260 ng/mL gel. Samples were extracted with methanol–water (60:40, v/v) and the extracts were then purified on an AFB1-IAC before UPLC–MS/MS analysis. The average recoveries of AFB1 in spiked samples at levels of 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0 μg/kg ranged from 72% to 98%, with the relative standard deviations of 1.2–9.3% (n = 6). The limits of qualification ranged from 0.07 to 0.23 μg/kg, which were below the MRLs of AFB1 in the matrices evaluated. In this work, the developed method was suitable for the determination of trace AFB1 residues in 13 kinds of foodstuffs.