Implications of Mycotoxins in Food Safety

Abstract

The chapter aims to address an overview of the implications of mycotoxins in food safety and the presence of mycotoxins in various foods. Nowadays, everyone wants safe food with a long shelf life. Food safety has become a major strategic issue worldwide and has attracted worldwide attention. Mycotoxins are widely found in food and feed, and dietary exposure to them can induce various types of adverse health effects in humans and animals. Contamination of food by fungi and mycotoxins results in loss of dry matter, quality and nutrition, and poses a significant danger to the food chain. Moreover, mycotoxin contamination decreases product quality and reduces export values, which can lead to significant economic losses for producing countries. Mycotoxin contamination directly reduces food availability and has its own contribution to hunger and malnutrition, and the consumption of food contaminated with mycotoxins has major repercussions on human health.

Food Security and Foodborne Mycotoxicoses—What Should Be the Adequate Risk Assessment and Regulation?

“…The most common mycotoxin in barley is DON, whereas AFs and DON prevail in cereal porridge, and AFs prevail in breakfast cereals [ 5 ]. The most common mycotoxins in vegetables and fruits are PAT, OTA, and trichothecenes [ 5 , 20 ].…”

“…Independent of the large number of natural fungal metabolites (above 400), only 10–14 are mostly responsible for foodborne ailments or compromised public health, e.g., ochratoxin A (OTA), aflatoxins (AFs) among which aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) are the most problematic, fumonisins (FUMs) among which fumonisin B1 (FB1) is the most problematic, ergot alkaloids, zearalenone (ZEA), patulin (PAT), deoxynivalenol (DON), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), T-2, and HT-2. These mycotoxins often contaminate feedstuffs, food commodities, or animal/chick products, e.g., eggs, meat, or milk, in concentrations that can compromise human health or animal wellbeing [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”

“…In this regard, different kinds of losses attributed to mycotoxins are known, e.g., decreased livestock production, illness or death of animals/humans, increased necessity for medical care and veterinary service, increased costs for regulatory and preventive measures or mycotoxins detoxification, economic losses caused by food/feed scrapping, etc. [ 5 , 10 ].…”

A comprehensive review of mycotoxins: Toxicology, detection, and effective mitigation approaches

“…Chromatographic techniques like gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and liquid chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometer (LC/MS) are widely employed for mycotoxin determination. Nevertheless, these methodologies are not feasible for quick examination of raw materials owing to their high cost and the requisite for skilled workers [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Natural Antioxidant By-Product Mixture Counteracts the Effects of Aflatoxin B1 and Ochratoxin A Exposure of Piglets after Weaning: A Proteomic Survey on Liver Microsomal Fraction

“…In addition to these direct health effects, mycotoxins can also impact human health by reducing the nutritional quality of animal products. For example, mycotoxins can cause decreased feed intake and reduced weight gain in animals, which can result in lower levels of key nutrients in animal-derived food products [11,[36][37][38][39].…”