Determination of Ochratoxin a in coffee beans and coffee products by monoclonal antibody affinity chromatography

Abstract

A clean‐up method using a monoclonal antibody affinity column was developed for the analysis of ochratoxin A (OTA) in coffee products. Monoclonal antibody specific for OTA was covalently bound to Sepharose‐4B and the resultant affinity column was used for the clean‐up of sample extracts. OTA was quantitatively recovered from the affinity column. The subsequent high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of the eluted sample revealed no marked interference peaks when compared with those extracts obtained by conventional approaches. The HPLC peak coinciding with OTA was confirmed by derivatization into ethyl and n‐propyl esters. Furthermore, the present affinity column could be regenerated at least 30 times without significant loss of the binding activity. The detection limit of OTA in the present affinity column‐HPLC procedure was 0.5 μg/kg for coffee beans and instant coffee powder, and 0.025 μg/kg for a canned coffee drink. The recoveries of OTA from coffee products were more than 98%, with coefficient variations in the range of 1.11%‐4.56%.