development and validation of a novel analytical method to quantify aflatoxins in baby food samples by employing dispersive solid phase extraction with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

A new method for the quantification of four aflatoxins (afb1, afb2, afg1, and afg2) in baby food samples is described herein. in this method, the extraction/cleanup step was performed by using multi-walled carbon nanotubes as a sorbent material in a dispersive solid phase procedure. in sequence, these mycotoxins were quantified via liquid chromatographic coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. the method was fully validated according to the ec/657/2002 and sanco/12571/2013 directives. adequate values were obtained for all figures of merit, mainly veracity (recoveries: 75.8 to 120.6%) and quantification limits (loqs: 60.0 to 560.0 ng kg-1), with no noticeable matrix effects. the method was tested in real samples (n = 4) and aflatoxin b1 (afb1) was detected in just one of them. finally, this analytical procedure has an evident potential to be applied to analyze aflatoxins (and other mycotoxins) in distinct types of complex samples.