A conjunctive strategy for hazard screening on lipophilic marine toxins and their analogues in shellfish by high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry.

Abstract

Lipophilic marine toxins pose a significant threat to food and public safety. In this study, a conjunctive strategy integrating suspect and semi-untargeted screening was developed for lipophilic marine toxins and their analogues using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Firstly, the fragmentation characteristics of five classes of lipophilic marine toxins were compiled based on experimental MS/MS and available MS/MS spectral libraries. Subsequently, the screening strategy was developed with an optimized workflow. Finally, the strategy was applied to analyze the Mytilus tissue reference material CRM-FDMT1. 124 of 128 reported features were successfully screened out, with 44 matched to fragmentation characteristics. These results demonstrate that the established strategy has high sensitivity and coverage for lipophilic marine toxins and their analogues. Importantly, it serves as a powerful tool for hazard screening of lipophilic marine toxins in food samples, offering a reliable approach to expand toxin detection coverage in routine monitoring.