Rapid acoustic screening of deoxynivalenol (DON) in grain

• Published in: World mycotoxin journal Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 267 - 274
• Main Authors: Juodeikiene, G, Basinskiene, L, Vidmantiene, D, Bartkiene, E, Kunigelis, V, de Koe, W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands Brill | Wageningen Academic 01.08.2008; Wageningen Academic Publishers
• Subjects: mycotoxins; wheat; acoustic spectrometer
• ISSN: 1875-0710; 1875-0796
• DOI: 10.3920/WMJ2008.1018

A novel, fast, non-invasive, cheap and quantitative technique to detect deoxynivalenol (DON) in cereal grains is described. This technique is completely different from currently applied wet chemistry techniques and is based on acoustic waves penetrating through and/or reflected by air-filled porous materials such as unconsolidated solid beads of grain. The rapid acoustic technique has been tested for the quantitative determination of DON in wheat. Two types of equipment were used: an acoustic spectrometer with transmission and an acoustic impulse spectrometer with transmission and reflection. To increase the accuracy of the analysis and optimise the acoustic signal an optimal frequency has been determined for both spectrometers. High correlations between DON contaminated wheat samples and the different amounts of shrivelled kernels in mixtures determined by the acoustic technique have been found. The statistical analysis shows that the acoustic method gives sufficiently precise results in the quantitative determination of DON in grain. The technique with in- and on-line capabilities can therefore be used to screen DON in contaminated wheat at point of harvest. Because it is fit for monitoring and high-throughput analysis, the technique solves some of the problems commonly associated with sampling and analysis.