Determination of aflatoxin concentrations in peanut butter by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA): study of three commercial ELISA kits.

Sixteen United Kingdom analytical laboratories participated in an evaluation of 3 commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits for analysis of aflatoxin in peanut butter. Each laboratory was sent 3 sets of 10 randomly numbered samples of peanut butter. Each set consisted of 5 pairs of undisclosed duplicates. Four of the sets of duplicates were naturally contaminated butters with "target" aflatoxin values (estimated by liquid chromatography) between 8 and 81 micrograms/kg. The fifth pair was a blank peanut butter containing approximately 3 micrograms/kg of total aflatoxins. A statistical treatment of the results of the study is presented, together with discussion of the relative merits of the different kits.