Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. Its contamination with mycotoxins is of public health concern, especially for heavy drinkers. Beer production implies a variety of operations which might impact the initial level of mycotoxins in a positive or negative way. The complexity of these operations do not give to the brewer a complete control on chemical and biochemical reactions that take place in the batch, but the knowledge about mycotoxin properties can help in identifying the operations decreasing their level in foodstuffs and in the development of mitigation strategies. This review discusses available data about mycotoxin evolution during malting and brewing process. The operations that may lead to a decrease in mycotoxin load are found to be steeping, kilning, roasting, fermentation and stabilization operations applied over the process (e.g. clarification). Also, other general decontamination strategies usually employed in food industry, such as hot water treatment of barley, ozonation or even the use of lactic acid bacteria starter cultures during malting or fermentation are considered.

A multianalyte method, using a MS/MS detector, was applied for a simultaneous determination of 23 mycotoxins in 64 beer products purchased from the supermarket in Lleida, Spain. The samples varied by their origin, brewing technology, alcohol content, etc. The results showed that 20.3% of the tested samples were mycotoxin contaminated overpassing the limit of detection (LOD). None of the alcohol-free samples (17%) were contaminated with mycotoxins. The most frequently occurring toxin was zearalenone (ZEN), being quantified in 65% of the positive samples, with levels ranging from 8.24 to 62.96 µg/L. Regarding the co-occurrence of mycotoxins, three samples were found to contain two or more mycotoxins simultaneously. A deterministic approach was used to evaluate the contribution of beer consumption to daily intake and the proportion of the established tolerable daily intake (TDI) for ZEN and deoxynivalenol (DON) and its metabolite deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (DON-3-G).

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 15 commercial yeasts in the mitigation of the Fusarium mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) during the brewing process. Saccharomyces strains (10 strains of S. cerevisiae and 5 of S. pastorianus) were used to ferment DON and ZEN contaminated wort. Wort samples were taken every 24 h during fermentation, while mycotoxin analysis in yeast was performed at the end of fermentation (96 h); additionally, pH and ethanol content were measured daily. For mycotoxin analysis, after immunoaffinity purification of sample extracts, analysis was performed using an Ultra-High-Pressure Liquid Chromatograph coupled with a diode array or fluorescence detector (UHPLC-DAD/FLD). Mycotoxin presence had no significant effect on the ethanol production during brewing. At the end of fermentation, 10-17 % of DON and 30-70 % of ZEN had been removed, 6 % of the initial concentration of DON and 31 % of the ZEN being adsorbed by the yeast. Beermakers must pay careful attention to the raw material since a high percentage of DON could be present at the end of the beer fermentation process. Future studies should focus on the quantification of "masked" mycotoxins that are relevant to food security. HIGHLIGHTS| • After beer fermentation, 83-90 % of DON and 30-70 % of ZEN in wort was detected. • DON and ZEN adsorption ability of S. pastorianus and S. cerevisiae was evaluated. • Saccharomyces yeasts show higher adsorptions for ZEN that for DON. 32 • DON and ZEN contamination of wort had no effect on ethanol production.

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The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of 23 mycotoxins in beer purchased in Mexico and to assess two exposure scenarios in the Mexican population through beer consumption. Multi-mycotoxin analysis of a total of 61 different beers (132 samples) was carried out using UHPLC-MS/MS equipment. Probability density functions were used to describe mycotoxins contamination. The daily intake of mycotoxins was estimated using a semi-probabilistic approach, applying the Monte Carlo method. Deoxynivalenol (DON) and its metabolites (deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (DON3G) and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3ADON) were the mycotoxins found in higher proportions in contaminated samples. None of the other mycotoxins overpassed the limit of quantification (LOQ) of the method. The combined intake of DON and its analogues ranged from 5.24 to 86.59 ng kg-1 bw day-1, which represent from 1.20 to 19.83 % of the DON TDI. The results suggest that depending on the individual consumption of beer and depending on the type of beer, the intake of DON via beer could represent a significant percentage of the tolerable daily intake (TDI).