Analytical methodology for the determination of aflatoxins in peanut butter: comparison of high-performance thin-layer chromatographic, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and high-performance liquid chromatographic methods

Abstract

High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) was applied to the separation and quantification of aflatoxin in 300 jars of “crunchy” peanut butter. A critical evaluation of the proposed HPTLC method has been carried out by statistical comparisons with a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit and a high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method. The statistical tests indicated that whilst the distributions of the data sets obtained with each method were similar, the HPLC method was found to be biased. Over-all results indicated that the HPTLC method gave more consistent data, relatively lower standard deviations and lower coefficients of variation. The ELISA kit was found to be less precise than the HPTLC and HPLC methods and prone to some loss of sensitivity caused by matrix interference.