Stine Göransson Aanrud, Lan Thi Thu Nguyen, Marit Spidsberg Paulsrud, Jacob Stepaschko
and John Ansgar Aasen Bunæs
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Elisabeth Stephansens vei 15, 1433 Ås
Email: algegruppa@nmbu.no
In the last few years, a focus on finding new and underused resources from the sea has expanded. New food and feed products are suggested, tried and put into production. This is a very positive development, and it is great that so many people are working to create new, sustainable products from the sea. For Algelab at NMBU, this also brings with it some interesting challenges.
As the Norwegian Reference Laboratory on Marine Algae Toxins, Algelab routinely analyses samples of shellfish for three different groups of algae toxins, Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxins (DSTs), Amnesic Shellfish Toxins (ASTs) and Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PSTs) in accordance with regulations for the Norwegian Food Safety Authorities. These toxin groups are a real threat to humans and are monitored in all shellfish harvested for sale in Norway. The toxins are produced by different algae’s and can therefore affect most of the animal life in the sea that filter seawater or prey on filter feeders. Algelab is accredited for these three groups of toxins in shellfish matrices.
The challenges start when producers want to develop new products for food and feed and send us samples to have the products cleared from algae toxins. The samples rarely resemble shellfish, and do not always go well with the routine sample preparation or the detection methods that we normally use. Examples of such matrices can be Algae oil, krill flour, tunicates, shellfish eggs and feed for animals. The common denominator of the samples is that the customers want fast, good quality answers and these matrices do not come often enough to be included in the routine analysis.
This poster will highlight some of the chromatographic challenges Algelab have met when receiving new matrices and show the importance of using complementary analytical methods.