Sample Preparation for Aflatoxin Analysis

The mean aflatoxin concentration determined in the samples was used to assess if the addition of water during homogenisation had an impact on the performance of the analytical method used, i.e. was there a significant difference in aflatoxin determined between the preparation methods? A secondary objective was to assess whether the addition of water had any effect on the performance of the proposed CEN method for aflatoxin detection.
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Five Brazil nut samples were thoroughly mixed by dry mixing and split into two equal portions. For each, one portion was further mixed, the other portion slurried with water in the ratio 5:4 (nut:water). For two of the five samples two analysis methods were performed: the CSL in-house method and a validated method (proposed CEN method).