Effect of muffin processing on fumonisins from 14C-labeled toxins produced in vivo in corn kernels

Several factors are known to affect the persistence of fumonisins during cooking including thermal degradation and the presence of various ingredients in corn-based food recipes that can react with the toxin. A method was developed for the production of corn kernels containing 14C fumonisins colonized by Fusarium verticillioides MRC 826. The 14C-FB1 produced had a specific activity sufficient to study its fate in cornmeal muffins. The double extraction, acetonitrile-water-methanol/ immunoaffinity column/ o-phthaldialdehyde HPLC method was used to determine fumonisins in corn meal muffins. Reductions in the FB1 content from spiked with 14C labeled and unlabeled FB1 were similar, indicating that the extraction method was efficient, and accorded with previous reports at 43 and 48%. However, with the naturally-produced labeled material, recoveries based on the 14C counts found in the eluate from an immunoaffinity column were much higher (90%). This indicated that some fumonisin-related compounds, other than FB1, present in the naturally-contaminated cornmeal were recognized by the antibodies but not by the HPLC method.