Recent advances in magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers and their application in the food safety analysis

Food safety is a worldwide concern and is directly related to human health.Therefore,convenient,effective,and economical methods and technologies for food safety analysis have been developed continuously.Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers(MMIPs)have gained extensive attention in recent years,as they have high selectivity,high adsorption capacity,and are easy to isolate from food samples.Recently,advanced strategies for the synthesis of MMIPs have been proposed to solve problems of template leakage and non-specific adsorption,and to increase the biocompatibility,adsorption rate,as well as adsorption capacity of the imprinted materials.In this review,we focus on new attempts at modification of magnetic core and MMIPs’surfaces,and the selection of template,functional monomer,cross-linker as well as porogen.Studies are summarized that used advanced MMIPs for the recognition and adsorption of pesticide residues,veterinary drug residues,mycotoxins,contaminants,and adulterations in foodstuffs over the last 5 years.Finally,some still existing challenges and future prospects to further promote MMIPs properties are also discussed.

Multiple characteristic structure fragments scans coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry strategy for discovering unknown structural analogs of mycotoxins in food

The cereals and their products,which have been easily infected by fungi and contaminated with mycotoxins,are serious threat to both human and animals alike.And yet,detection of these unknown fungal infection and mycotoxins contaminates remains a great challenge.In this work,a holistic approach based on multiple characteristic structure fragments scans and high-resolution mass spectrometry(HRMS)was proposed for discovering unknown structural analogues of mycotoxins.The structural similarity of the same class of compounds provides a direction for the discovery and identification of unknown structural analogues of mycotoxins.The following steps were carried out:the fragmentation pathways of four types of mycotoxins were elucidated through comprehensive fragment analysis.By the combination of fragmentation pathways,the multiple characteristic structure fragments were screened out,with the common fragments were obtained by Veen diagram.Finally multiple characteristic structure fragments scans were carried out to find the unknown structural analogues of mycotoxins.The approach,first proposed by us,was proved to be effective in discovering and identifying 5 structural analogues of mycotoxins in real samples.It was proved to be a simple,fast and accurate method for early detection of fungal infection and mycotoxin contaminants,even for trace amounts of chemicals in complex matrix,and is of great significance to prevent hazardous substances infection from the food supply chains worldwide.