4. Conclusion

Toxin contamination of foodstuffs is a long-established phenomenon. The agri-food industry has to contend with numerous toxins that can prove dangerous when contaminating foodstuffs. Only continuous monitoring of foodstuffs can ensure their safety. Chromatographic techniques are widely used for safety purposes, but because of their cost, few controls are carried out.

There are enzyme immunoassays for ochratoxin A, aflatoxin M1 and okadaic acid marketed by various companies, and enzymatic assays for okadaic acid. All these tests require calibration lines, and are often time-consuming, tedious and costly. The enzymatic kit for okadaic acid is very expensive due to the instability of the enzyme, and it is not economically feasible to analyze a single sample.

Systems based on immobilized enzymes, which greatly increase their stability, and the...