Several components of mushroom compost (wheat straw, chicken manure) can be contaminated with mycotoxins posing food health risks to mushroom consumers. To assess the relevance of such contaminations high-throughput analytical methods are needed. In this study, two sample preparation approaches, dilute & shoot (D&S) and modified citrate buffered Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe (QuEChERS) were compared in terms of extraction efficiency and matrix effect in case of 13 mycotoxins in complex matrices-wheat straw, the growing media and button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus)-of mushroom cultivation using high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). D&S method resulted in recoveries of LB medium, button mushroom and compost for ≥60% in case of all investigated mycotoxins except for DON-3G. However, using modified citrate buffered QuEChERS with 2% acidification of the extraction solvent showed the complete loss of strongly polar DON-3G and fumonisin B1 (FB1). The investigated matrices had suppressive effect on ionization in all target mycotoxins except for FB1. Regarding the use of isotopologues to compensate matrix effect, even U-[13C15]-DON and U-[13C24]-T-2 can also be used to quantify their related metabolites in the studied matrices, using internal standard method.
Keywords: Matrix effect; isotopologue mycotoxins; liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; mushroom production; mycotoxins.