Determination of trichothecenes in chicken liver using gas chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry

Chicken meat and edible offal are included in a wide number of preparations in the worldwide cuisine. Among the offal, the liver is one of the most consumed in some countries like Egypt since it is rich in proteins and is an economical source of many essential nutrients for humans. Mycotoxins, secondary toxic metabolites produced by fungi, have the potential to enter human food chain not only with cereal consumption but also through edible tissues from animals fed with mycotoxin-contaminated feed. Accordingly, a rapid method for the determination of eight trichothecenes in chicken liver was developed based on a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) extraction and gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) determination. The proposed method was successfully validated according to the European guideline recommendations with satisfactory trueness (recovery range from 85.1 to 108.4%), precision (relative standard deviation < 8%) and limits of quantitation in a range from 0.25 to 0.75 μg/kg. The method was applied to twenty chicken liver samples collected from Egypt markets. 65% of samples showed mycotoxin contamination in a concentration range from 1.3 to 25.0 μg/kg. Up to four mycotoxins were detected, being deoxynivalenol the most commonly detected mycotoxin.