Mycotoxins in Cereal-Based Products and Their Impacts on the Health of Humans, Livestock Animals and Pets

Abstract

Cereal grains are the most important food staples for human beings and livestock animals. They can be processed into various types of food and feed products such as bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, cake, snacks, beer, complete feed, and pet foods. However, cereal grains are vulnerable to the contamination of soil microorganisms, particularly molds. The toxigenic fungi/molds not only cause quality deterioration and grain loss, but also produce toxic secondary metabolites, mycotoxins, which can cause acute toxicity, death, and chronic diseases such as cancer, immunity suppression, growth impairment, and neural tube defects in humans, livestock animals and pets. To protect human beings and animals from these health risks, many countries have established/adopted regulations to limit exposure to mycotoxins. The purpose of this review is to update the evidence regarding the occurrence and co-occurrence of mycotoxins in cereal grains and cereal-derived food and feed products and their health impacts on human beings, livestock animals and pets. The effort for safe food and feed supplies including prevention technologies, detoxification technologies/methods and up-to-date regulation limits of frequently detected mycotoxins in cereal grains for food and feed in major cereal-producing countries are also provided. Some important areas worthy of further investigation are proposed.

Biopolymers as Seed-Coating Agent to Enhance Microbially Induced Tolerance of Barley to Phytopathogens

“…Among the adverse factors of biotic nature, phytopathogenic microflora plays a key role. Infections of agricultural crops caused by pathogenic fungi are among the most widespread and harmful, as they not only reduce the quantity of the harvest but also significantly degrade its quality due to the accumulation of mycotoxins [32]. One of the positive effects of bacteria on crops is their ability to protect plants from phytopathogens through direct and indirect mechanisms [33].…”

Alternariol Monomethyl-Ether Induces Toxicity via Cell Death and Oxidative Stress in Swine Intestinal Epithelial Cells

“…Alternariol monomethyl-ether (AME), together with altenuene and alternariol, belongs to the Alternaria mycotoxins group of dibenzo-pyrone derivatives, which can contaminate different substrates, including cereals. The contamination of cereals with mycotoxins represents a worldwide concern, as cereals represent an important constituent of human and animal diets [4]. AME was detected in 23% of wheat samples analyzed in Argentina between 2004 and 2005, with a maximum concentration of 7451 µg/kg and a mean concentration of 2118 µg/kg [5].…”

Advances in Aptamer-Based Conjugate Recognition Techniques for the Detection of Small Molecules in Food

“…One is human activities, which result in pesticide residues [ 1 , 2 ], veterinary drug residues [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], and other illegal uses of additives [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. The other is naturally occurring contaminants, such as toxins produced by fungal metabolism [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Regardless of the type of contaminant, once the residual level exceeds the safe limit, it will lead to serious small molecule contaminant problems, affecting food safety and human health.…”