Gluten contamination in the Canadian commercial oat supply.

A growing body of evidence suggests that a majority of people with celiac disease and on a gluten-free diet can safely consume pure oats in moderate amounts; however, previous studies have indicated that the commercial oat supply in other countries, and in Canada to some extent, is contaminated with other grains. This study has confirmed that the commercial oat supply in Canada is heavily contaminated with gluten from other grains. Approximately 88% of the oat samples (n = 133) were contaminated above 20 mg kg(-1) and there were no differences between the oat types tested. Only one gluten-free variety of oats was analysed and it consistently provided negative results in all analyses. It is difficult to determine where the contamination originates, but there are possibilities for cross-contamination in the field, in the transport of the grain, in the storage of the grain, and in the milling and packaging facilities. It is clear from this study that only those products that have been certified 'pure' oats would be appropriate for a gluten-free diet.

Multi-allergen screening immunoassay for the detection of protein markers of peanut and four tree nuts in chocolate.

A multiresidue enzyme immunoassay was developed to check for the presence of markers of peanut, hazelnut, almond, cashew and Brazil nuts in a single run. The assay was designed under the competitive indirect format and adapted for screening purposes applied to chocolate samples. The limit of detection for this assay was below 1 microg g-1 protein for each allergenic food. In most cases, the high specificity of the antibodies used allowed the identification of each particular allergenic food with no possible confusion. This assay was proven to be useful as part of an analytical procedure involving the identification of the unknown allergenic food among peanut and other tree nuts in recalled samples before the application of a quantitative technique to determine the level of cross-contamination.

Evaluation of prechromatographic oxidation for liquid chromatographic determination of paralytic shellfish poisons in shellfish.

A liquid chromatographic (LC) method employing prechromatographic oxidation for the determination of paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) toxins was evaluated. A number of changes to an earlier method resulted in improved separation and quantitation of most PSP analogues. Modification of the periodate oxidation reaction for the N-hydroxy-containing toxins led to improved sensitivity and stability of the products, enabling automated overnight analyses. These changes also enabled quantitation of gonyautoxins 1 and 4 (together) in the presence of gonyautoxins 2 and 3. Decarbamoylsaxitoxin can be identified and quantitated after peroxide oxidation. A cleanup step using a strong-anion-exchange column removed the C toxins and B-2 from the extracts and enabled a more accurate quantitation of gonyautoxins 1 and 4 and neosaxitoxin. Chiral chromatography, employing a reversed-phase column and chiral mobile-phase additives (copper-proline complex), was briefly evaluated for the separation of the oxidation products of the isomer pairs, gonyautoxins 1 and 4 and gonyautoxins 2 and 3. A comparison of the method with the mouse bioassay for the determination of PSP in lobster hepatopancreas (58 samples) showed a reasonable correlation (0.90) over a concentration range of 40-500 micrograms/100 g (saxitoxin equivalents), although the LC results were consistently higher than the mouse bioassay values by about 40%.

Comparison of high-performance liquid chromatography with radioimmunoassay for the determination of domoic acid in biological samples.

A reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method employing UV absorption detection at 242 nm was compared to a radioimmunoassay technique for the determination of the marine toxin, domoic acid, in several types of seafood and biological samples. Agreement between the two methods for spiked samples of mussels and rat serum was very good over a range of concentrations of 0.15-7.3 micrograms/g domoic acid. Also, a very good correlation was observed between the two methods for naturally incurred residues of domoic acid in razor clams, anchovies and crab meat over a concentration range of 0.6-43 micrograms/g domoic acid.

Comparison of UV absorption and electrospray mass spectrometry for the high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of domoic acid in shellfish and biological samples.

Domoic acid, a neurotoxic amino acid produced by the marine diatom Nitchia pungens multiseries, was determined in samples of anchovies, razor clams, mussels, crab, rat serum, urine and feces by HPLC with UV absorption and electrospray (ESI) mass spectrometric (MS) detection. Shellfish samples were extracted with methanol-water followed by clean-up of the extracts with solid-phase extraction cartridges (strong anion or strong cation exchange). An aliquot of the fraction containing the domoic acid was analysed by HPLC. HPLC column size, mobile phase composition and flow-rate were selected so that essentially the same conditions could be used for both HPLC-UV and HPLC-ESI-MS with selected ion monitoring (SIM) determinations. These included the use of acetonitrile-water-formic acid as the mobile phase, at a flow-rate of 0.2 ml/min (split 13:1 for HPLC-ESI-MS-SIM, 10 microliters/min to the mass spectrometer). The results indicated that extracts found positive by the HPLC-UV method could be readily confirmed directly by HPLC-ESI-MS-SIM without additional sample treatment down to levels of 0.1 micrograms/g of domoic acid. This study demonstrates the use of HPLC-ESI-MS-SIM for the routine confirmation of domoic acid in a wide variety of samples.

Survey of arsenic in total diet food composites and estimation of the dietary intake of arsenic by Canadian adults and children.

During a comprehensive total diet study extending from 1985 to 1988, foods were collected in 6 Canadian cities (in one of them, a pilot study was conducted twice). For each of the 7 collections, foods were processed into 112 composites (105 in the initial pilot trial). Total arsenic was determined in all samples. The mean, median, and range of arsenic concentrations in all samples were 73.2, 5.1, and < 0.1-4830 ng/g, respectively. Food groups containing the highest mean arsenic levels were fish (1662 ng/g), meat and poultry (24.3 ng/g), bakery goods and cereals (24.5 ng/g), and fats and oils (19.0 ng/g). The estimated daily dietary ingestion of total arsenic by the average Canadian was 38.1 micrograms and varied from 14.9 micrograms for the 1- to 4-year-old group to 59.2 micrograms for 20- to 39-year-old males.

Determination of butyltin, cyclohexyltin and phenyltin compounds in beers and wines.

Butyl- cyclohexyl- and phenyltin compounds were extracted from enzymically-hydrolysed wine and beer samples with 0.05% tropolone in pentane. Methyl derivatives were made by Grignard reaction for determination by gas chromatography-atomic absorption spectrometry. Wine and beer samples contained less than 0.1 to 160 nl/ml of butyltins from an undetermined source of contamination. GC-MS confirmation of butyltins also detected phenyltin, and di- and tricyclohexyltin compounds at levels less than the GC-AAS based method detection limits of 0.05-0.13 ng Sn/mL.

Determination of butyltin, methyltin and tetraalkyltin in marine food products with gas chromatography-atomic absorption spectrometry.

Extraction methods were developed for the determination of butyltin, methyltin and tetraalkyltin in marine food products. Alkyltins were complexed with either diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) or tropolone from enzymatically hydrolysed samples. Tetraalkyltins were extracted with hexane. Butyl or methyl derivatives of the alkyltins were made by Grignard reaction for analysis by gas chromatography-atomic absorption spectrometry. Many of the examined marine food products contained ppb levels of alkyltins. Tetramethyltin and tetraethyltin levels were less than the method detection limits of 0.8 and 0.7 ng/g (as Sn), respectively.

Organic and total lead in selected fresh and canned seafood products.

Various fresh and canned seafood products were examined for ionic alkyl lead, tetraalkyl lead and total lead. Dimethyl lead, diethyl lead, trimethyl lead and triethyl lead were extracted with diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) at pH 8 and 9 from enzymically hydrolysed samples. Butyl derivatives were formed by Grignard reaction prior to analysis by gas chromatography-atomic absorption spectrometry (GC-AAS). Tetraalkyl lead was extracted from the hydrolysates with hexane. Total lead was determined by reductive coprecipitation with palladium in the presence of ascorbic acid after nitric-perchloric digestion. Many of the samples contained low (less than 0.09-0.7 ng g-1) levels of trimethyl- and dimethyl lead. Triethyl lead was found at similar levels in several samples. Total lead levels were higher with values ranging from less than 5 ng g-1 to 2.9 micrograms g-1. Detection limits for the organolead and total lead methods were 0.07-0.2 and 3-19 ng Pb g-1 respectively.