Determination of sterigmatocystin in beer by high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection

A new method for the determination of sterigmatocystin in beer was developed. This method consists of a solid phase extraction procedure of light and dark beer and reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Recoveries of sterigmatocystin from beer samples spiked at levels from 0.5 to 100 µg/l ranged from 81 to 126% for light beer and from 88 to 126% for dark beer with coefficients of variation between 2.2 and 14%. From the total of 26 analysed Latvian beer samples only two (7.7%) were contaminated with sterigmatocystin.