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Digital Re-print November | December 2014

Grain testing - Testing for GMO and Mycotoxins

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&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY

18 | November - December 2014

GRAIN

Grain testing
Testing for GMO and Mycotoxins
by Katharina Wieser , Division Marketing Officer,
Romer Labs Division Holding GmbH

rains are a group of foods that

includes maize, oats, barley, wheat,
rye, sorghum and others. As widely
reported, grain products are divided into
two categories: refined and whole grain.
The earlier is achieved by food manufacturers through milling, whereby the germ,
bran and the endosperm are removed. The
latter is just the whole grain itself. Grain
milling is the milling of flour and rice; the
malting of grain (primarily barley); and the
mixing of prepared flour mixes and dough.
Maize, rice and wheat constituted 87
percent of all grain production worldwide
and 43 percent of food calories in 2003.

Testing on GMOs

Agriculturally important plants are often

genetically modified by the insertion of DNA
material from outside the organism into the
plant's DNA sequence, allowing the plant to
express novel traits that normally would not
appear in nature, such as herbicide or insect
resistance. Seeds harvested from GMO
plants will also contain these modifications.
The current GMO production basically
relates to four crops: soybeans, corn, cotton, and oilseed rape. According to ISAAA
(International Service for the Acquisition of
Agri-Biotech Applications) 12 percent of
cultivated crops were genetically modified
(79 percent soy, 70 percent cotton, 32 percent corn, 24 percent oilseed rape) last year.
Thus following this trend, the international

genetically modified crop cultivation volume

will further increase in the next years.
The demand for testing for GMO comes
on the one hand to proof the absence of
GMO in products labeled GMO-free and on
the other hand in testing for identity preservation and collecting royalties for GMO
products.
Romer Labs offers a qualitative, semiquantitative and quantitative approach for
grain customers to test single seeds or bulk
grains for genetic modified organism. Most
registered corn and soy GMO traits can now
be tested to classify GMO content levels in
these bulk grains.

Testing on Mycotoxins

In addition, grain millers constantly face

the challenge of contamination by mycotoxins due to the omnipresence of fungi.
Mycotoxins can appear in the food chain
as a result of fungal infections in crops,
either through direct human consumption
or through being used as livestock feed.
To ensure food and feed safety, several
countries established regulatory limits for mycotoxin
contamination in crops.
Consequently, food
and feed producers need to test for
mycotoxins in their
products.

There are some crucial requirements

when it comes to mycotoxin testing. When
testing for mycotoxins you are working in
a challenging environment where not only
time is critical, but also space and sometimes
also access to testing equipment is limited.
To guarantee the safety of your agricultural products you need a mycotoxin testing
method that is easy-to-use and avoids difficult or time-consuming extraction or sample
preparations. The optimal testing method
should deliver highly accurate results that can
be quantified rapidly, while avoiding difficult
or time-consuming sample preparation and
procedure steps. Current state-of-the-art
technology is split into two major groups:
Reference Testing and Rapid Testing.
Reference Testing is largely done with
HPLC-UV (or -FLD) and LC-MS/MS systems. These are highly accurate but time
consuming analysis methods. Romer Labs
offers a variety of clean up columns and liquid calibrants. For LC-MS/MS systems, which
are state of the art technology, Romer Labs
offers 13C isotope labeled calibrants. When
applied as internal standards, these calibrants
ensure accurate and precise reference results.
The younger group, Rapid
Testing, is gaining more and
more importance and due
to its fast results and the
ability for being used as
on-site screening tools it is
part of daily routine analysis.

&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY

GRAIN

Rapid tests are quick and easy to perform

test kits that can produce qualitative as well
as quantitative test results. Expensive equipment is usually not needed and tests can
be used on fields or in laboratories. Typical
rapid test systems on the market range from
immunochemical tests, e.g. ELISA like the
AgraQuant ELISA and lateral flow device
tests like the AgraStrip lateral flow device
tests, to chemical tests such as the fluorometric tests for aflatoxins.
A new rapid test kit line for mycotoxin

November - December 2014 | 19

testing, the water-based AgraStrip WATEX

test kit line once more confirms the innovative approach of Romer Labs:
The innovative and unique all-in-one
extraction enables food, feed and grain
producers to test for both, Aflatoxins and
Zearalenone, without using organic solvents,
such as methanol, which are expensive,
flammable, and must be disposed as hazardous waste. Testing out of the same sample
extract significantly speeds up the workflow
and simplifies the ease-of-use. With new dis-

November - December 2014 | 35

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solvable and pre-weighed extraction buffer

bags no time-consuming or difficult buffer
preparations steps are needed. No filtration
or centrifugation step is needed due to
innovative extraction equipment with WhirlPak Bags, disposing of an integrated filter
membrane in each test kit. These attributes
make the use of additional extract clarification obsolete.
Solvent-free Water-based extraction
of mycotoxins out of representative
commodity samples using distilled

&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY

20 | November - December 2014

water, eliminating the use of hazardous

chemicals from the sample extraction
Fast time-to-result of 8 minutes
(including extraction, sample preparation
and strip development): New
dissolvable, pre-weighed extraction
buffer bags simplify and significantly
speed up the workflow
No filtration or centrifugation step
needed - All test kits include innovative
extraction equipment making the use of
additional extract clarification obsolete
Over the next months, the new AgraStrip
WATEX test kit line will be further expanded to cover regulated mycotoxins.

AgraVision Reader

The AgraVision reader is Romer Lab's

handheld lateral flow device reader used for
the quantification of AgraStrip Mycotoxin
and GMO products. It measures the intensity
of the test line on the AgraStrip and can
read up to two mycotoxin strips or four
GMO strips simultaneously. Test results can
easily be stored for hard copy documentation with the optional AgraVision printer
strip.

Romer Labs Mycotoxin Solutions:

Romer Labs provides the broadest range

of mycotoxin testing solutions that allows
customers to cover the whole production process. In addition to rapid methods
including on-site Lateral Flow Devices and
laboratory based ELISAs, Romer Labs offers
its customers reference testing methods
and the required equipment, ranging from
cleanup columns, reference material including 13C labeled internal standards to a huge
portfolio of Analytical Service analysis.

GRAIN

Analytical service

Thirty years of experience has built confidence and competence in the Romer Labs
analytical testing service as a partner for
accurate and reliable results.
The service operates on a global scale
with laboratories in Austria, Singapore, the
United States and the United Kingdom.
Romer Labs UK Ltd based in Runcorn,
Cheshire was established in 2010 to offer a
more specialised food testing service to food
& feed manufacturers in the local market.
Our analytical expertise and in-depth knowledge is recognised in the testing for Food
Allergens, GMOs, Species, Mycotoxins and
Contaminants in all types of food, feed and
beverages, including potentially problematic
samples such as chocolate and processed
ingredients. Food Allergen analysis is a key
capability and builds upon our expertise
as Romer Labs Competence Centre for
allergen method development.
Also in UK we have dedicated facilities
for ELISA and PCR analysis and utilise stateof-the art instrumentation including Q-PCR
for GMO analysis, ensuring the highest
confidence in the accuracy of results.
The Analytical Laboratory is ISO
17025:2005 accredited through the United
Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).
Overall, comprehensive analytical services
for mycotoxins, allergens, GMOs, veterinary
drug residues and other contaminants that
are of key relevance in food and feed safety
are available. These services are on offer
for a variety of sample matrices, including
grains, feed samples, food samples and many
others.
Reliable and accurate results are established through ISO9001 certification and
ISO17025 accreditation, as well as other
reference lab certifications and participation
in official proficiency testing programs.

State-of-the-art equipment allows our

highly trained and motivated analysts to
use the latest methods and technologies to
perform analysis with the highest level of
accuracy and minimal turn-around time.
Romer Labs also advocates the importance of sampling, via our Romer Labs
Sampling Guide and Romer Labs grinding
mills prior to laboratory analysis. The RAS
Mill for instance has been specifically developed for products that are difficult to grind
due to high moisture and/or high oil content.
Among these products are cottonseed, tree
nuts etc. A one kg sample of corn can be
ground and subsampled in one minute.
We offer validation and cross-check services in our in-house accredited laboratories
to complement this analysis.

About Romer Labs:

Romer Labs, founded in Washington,

MO, in 1982, is a leading provider in diagnostic solutions for food and feed safety. It
develops, manufactures and markets rapid
test kits for food allergens, food pathogens,
mycotoxins, veterinary drug residues and
other food contaminants. The company
also operates four accredited full-service
laboratories on three continents. Romer
Labs has facilities in Austria, Brazil, China,
Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and the USA.
For more than 30 years, Romer Labs has
been a trusted partner for the food and feed
industry worldwide. The fundamental objective of Romer Labs is to provide scientifically
sound, high-quality products and services to
"Making the Worlds Food Safer".
More

inforMation:

Katharina Wieser
Division Marketing Officer
Romer Labs Division Holding GmbH
Technopark 1, 3430 Tulln, Austria
Tel: +43 2272 615 33 10
Email: katharina.wieser@romerlabs.com
Web: www.romerlabs.com

Nothing escapes
Romer Labs.

AgraStrip
WATEX now
roved
GIPSA app

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ROMER LABS

TESTING SOLUTIONS AND CONTACT:
Romer Labs Diagnostic GmbH
Technopark 1, 3430 Tulln, Austria
Tel: +43 2272 61533 10
Email: ofce-europe@romerlabs.com
www.romerlabs.com

LINKS
November - December 2014

This digital Re-print is part of the November | December 2014 edition of Grain & Feed
Milling Technology magazine.
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