Quantification of ochratoxin A in red wines by conventional HPLC–FLD using a column packed with core–shell particles

Abstract Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin commonly present in red wine and other foodstuffs. It is widely studied due to its nephrotoxic, immunotoxic, teratogenic and carcinogenic effects. Nowadays, liquid chromatography is the main method for OTA analysis. With the recent development on the column technology, core–shell columns were commercialized in recent years. It is with high performance while maintain low back pressure thus could be used on conventional HPLC instrument. However, as current conventional benchmark high-performance liquid chromatographs were not initially designed for the recently developed high-efficiency packed columns, the HPLC–FLD parameter should be carefully investigated. In this work the performance of chromatography column packed with 2.6 μm core–shell particles on conventional benchmark HPLC were investigated. Parameters including flow rate, mobile phase composition (volume fraction of ACN in water), temperature, response time, sampling frequency, and injection volume for quantitative analysis of OTA in red wines were investigated in detail. The results show that core–shell column is more effective and faster to be operated on conventional HPLC than other total porous particle packed column. Optimized conditions provided a method for the separation of OTA in less than 5 min, with the limit of detection (LOD) 0.0025 μg/L and the limit of quantification (LOQ) 0.0083 μg/L in the sample, respectively. The developed method was validated with red wine samples with OTA concentrations ranging from 0.0028 to 0.0437 μg/L. The use of a core–shell column allows highly efficient, sensitive, and accurate determination of OTA with an outstanding sample throughout.