Determining mycotoxins and mycotoxigenic fungi in food and feed

Author(s):  
Sarah De Saeger
Toxins ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Jajić ◽  
Tatjana Dudaš ◽  
Saša Krstović ◽  
Rudolf Krska ◽  
Michael Sulyok ◽  
...  

Emerging mycotoxins such as moniliformin (MON), enniatins (ENs), beauvericin (BEA), and fusaproliferin (FUS) may contaminate maize and negatively influence the yield and quality of grain. The aim of this study was to determine the content of emerging Fusarium mycotoxins in Serbian maize from the 2016, 2017, and 2018 harvests. A total of 190 samples from commercial maize production operations in Serbia were analyzed for the presence of MON, ENs, BEA, and FUS using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The obtained results were interpreted together with weather data from each year. MON, BEA, and FUS were major contaminants, while other emerging mycotoxins were not detected or were found in fewer samples (<20%). Overall contamination was highest in 2016 when MON and BEA were found in 50–80% of samples. In 2017 and 2018, high levels of MON, FUS, and BEA were detected in regions with high precipitation and warm weather during the silking phase of maize (July and the beginning of August), when the plants are most susceptible to Fusarium infections. Since environmental conditions in Serbia are favorable for the occurrence of mycotoxigenic fungi, monitoring Fusarium toxins is essential for the production of safe food and feed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Cary ◽  
K. Rajasekaran ◽  
J. Yu ◽  
R. Brown ◽  
D. Bhatnagar ◽  
...  

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites that can contaminate food and feed crops worldwide and are responsible for toxic effects in animals and humans that consume contaminated commodities. Regulatory guidelines and limits for mycotoxins have been set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and food safety agencies of other countries for both import and export of affected commodities. Mycotoxin contamination of foods and feeds can also cause serious economic hardships to producers, processors, and the consumer. Therefore, there has been a concerted effort by researchers worldwide to develop strategies for the effective control of mycotoxin contamination of crops, particularly at the pre-harvest stage. Strategies currently being utilised to combat pre-harvest mycotoxin contamination include: (1) use of non-toxigenic biocontrol strains; (2) improved agricultural practices; (3) application of agrochemicals; (4) plant breeding for resistance; and (5) genetic engineering of resistance genes into crop plants. This article highlights research on the genetic engineering of plants for resistance to invasion by mycotoxigenic fungi as well as detoxification of mycotoxins. Emphasis is placed on the most economically relevant fungi and the mycotoxins they produce. These include aflatoxins produced mainly by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, trichothecenes produced mainly by Fusarium graminearum, and to a lesser extent, fumonisins produced by F. verticillioides. Information is also presented on the use of genomics and proteomics technologies as a means of identifying genes and proteins that can be utilised in transgenic approaches to control the growth of mycotoxigenic fungi and the mycotoxins that they produce in food and feed crops.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150
Author(s):  
H. Ur Rahman ◽  
X. Yue ◽  
Q. Yu ◽  
W. Zhang ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary fungal metabolites produced by certain types of filamentous fungi, such as Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium spp. Mycotoxigenic fungi and their produced mycotoxins are considered to be an important issue in food and feed safety due to their toxic effects like carcinogenicity, immunosuppression, neurotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity on humans and animals. To boost the safety level of food and feedstuff, detection and identification of toxins are essential at critical control points across food and feed chains. Zero-tolerance policies by the European Union and other organizations about the extreme low level of tolerance of mycotoxins contamination in food and feed matrices have led to an increasing interest to design more sensitive, specific, rapid, cost-effective, and safer to use mycotoxigenic fungi detection technologies. Hence, many mycotoxigenic fungi detection technologies have been applied to measure and control toxins contamination in food and feed substrates. PCR-based mycotoxigenic fungi detection technologies, such as conventional PCR, real-time PCR, nested PCR, reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), in situ PCR, polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR DGGE), co-operational PCR, multiplex PCR, DNA arrays, magnetic capture-hybridization (MCH)-PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), would contribute to our understanding about different mycotoxigenic fungi detection approaches and will enhance our capability about mycotoxigenic fungi identification, isolation and characterization at critical control points across food and feed chains. We have assessed the principles, results, the limit of detection, and application of these PCR-based detection technologies to alleviate mycotoxins contamination problem in complex food and feed substrates. The potential application of these detection technologies can reduce mycotoxins in complex food and feed matrices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. e1256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Savoie ◽  
Gerardo Mata ◽  
Vessela Atanasova Penichon ◽  
Marie Foulonge-Oriol

Background: Biological control for cereal diseases caused by mycotoxigenic fungi is part of the alternative methods to be developed to secure food and feed production, recognizing the negative effects these fungi have on crop yield and their potential production of mycotoxins. Objective: Update recent knowledge about the potential of mushroom-forming fungi as biological control agents of mycotoxigenic fungi species, acting as antagonists on crop debris, as source of active extracts with antifungal and/or antimycotoxin properties and as detoxifying agents in solid-state fermentation processes of contaminated cereals. Methods: A literature review of the published works was carried out, the main topics were analyzed, as well as the species with the greatest potential of biological control agents of mycotoxingenic fungi. Results and conclusions: Mushroom forming fungi could be used as antagonists on crop debris or grains, as sources of active extracts with antifungal and/or antimycotoxin properties, and as detoxifying agents. An integration of these three potentials gives rise to an environment friendly process for production of both safe grains and edible mushrooms.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 483-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávio Henrique Vasconcelos de Medeiros ◽  
Samuel Julio Martins ◽  
Tiago Domingues Zucchi ◽  
Itamar Soares de Melo ◽  
Luis Roberto Batista ◽  
...  

Mycotoxins are produced by the secondary metabolism of many fungi and can be found in almost 25% of the world's agricultural commodities. These compounds are toxic to humans, animals, and plants and therefore, efforts should be made to avoid mycotoxin contamination in food and feed. Besides, up to 25% of all harvested fruits and vegetables are lost due to storage molds and/or mycotoxin contamination and many methods have been applied to mitigate these issues, but most of them rely on the use of fungicides. Although chemicals are often the first defensive line against mycotoxigenic fungi, the indiscriminate use of fungicides are awakening the public perception due to their noxious effects on the environment and human/animal health. Thus, there is an increasing public pressure for a safer and eco-friendly alternative to control these organisms. In this background, biological control using microbial antagonists such as bacteria, fungi and yeasts have been shown to be a feasible substitute to reduce the use of chemical compounds. Despite of the positive findings using the biocontrol agents only a few products have been registered and are commercially available to control mycotoxin-producing fungi. This review brings about the up-to-date biological control strategies to prevent or reduce harvested commodity damages caused by storage fungi and the contamination of food and feed by mycotoxins.


Author(s):  
Reem Moath Alasmar ◽  
Samir Jaoua

Mycotoxins, the secondary fungal metabolites are important contaminants of food and feed. Among the other contaminants, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and OTA are frequently detected in the animal feed product. In the present study, the mixed dairy cow feed products were collected from the supermarkets in Qatar and analyzed for the presence of AFB1 and OTA. Yeast strains were isolated and tested for their biological control activities against aflatoxigenic and ochratoxin fungi. We demonstrated that local 15 yeasts isolates have important antifungal potential activities through the synthesis of volatile organic compounds (VOC) that are able to act against the mycotoxigenic fungi and their synthesis of the mycotoxins. Two Yeast strains (4&2) isolated from fermented food, have shown a great antifungal inhibition growth in-vitro as well as spores inhibition and mycotoxins synthesis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-45
Author(s):  
Fatima Mukhtar

Aspergillus species influence human and animal health directly and indirectly with a significant economic impact on the society. A. flavus and A. parasiticus are the two major species that produce aflatoxins. Several mycotoxins are reported from several other mycotoxigenic fungi of which the aflatoxins are the most toxic and damaging polyketides. Economically important crops such as maize, rice, cotton seed, peanuts, and spices are all susceptible to contamination of aflatoxin. The aim of this review is to make an extensive review and come up with ways to curtail this global challenge on how to manage aflatoxin contamination in crops and other food products since the toxins have been classified as potent carcinogens and about 25% of food is being lost due to aflatoxin contamination annually. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) conducted evaluation of several chemicals of their carcinogenic potential and classified aflatoxins as most potent natural, known human carcinogens. The methodology was by selecting the most recent researches conducted on new techniques to be employed in overcoming the issue of aflatoxin contamination both during the pre and post-harvest strategies. The Data gathered was subjected to appropriate statistical tool so as to come up with more improved techniques. It was found that both chemical and physical methods have certain drawbacks which may lead to drop in human and animal health, cause a significant decline in the quality of food products, losses of nutritional value, high cost and cause undesirable health effects, but biological methods using microorganisms seems more promising, they provide an attractive alternative tool for removing toxins and safeguarding the value of food and feed in an eco-friendly way. Key words: Aflatoxin, Contamination, Crops, Pre and Post-harvest.


Toxins ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tihomir Kovač ◽  
Bojan Šarkanj ◽  
Ivana Borišev ◽  
Aleksandar Djordjevic ◽  
Danica Jović ◽  
...  

Despite the efforts to control mycotoxin contamination worldwide, extensive contamination has been reported to occur in food and feed. The contamination is even more intense due to climate changes and different stressors. This study examined the impact of fullerol C60(OH)24 nanoparticles (FNP) (at 0, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 ng mL−1) on the secondary metabolite profile of the most relevant foodborne mycotoxigenic fungi from genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, Alternaria and Penicillium, during growth in vitro. Fungi were grown in liquid RPMI 1640 media for 72 h at 29 °C, and metabolites were investigated by the LC-MS/MS dilute and shoot multimycotoxin method. Exposure to FNP showed great potential in decreasing the concentrations of 35 secondary metabolites; the decreases were dependent on FNP concentration and fungal genus. These results are a relevant guide for future examination of fungi-FNP interactions in environmental conditions. The aim is to establish the exact mechanism of FNP action and determine the impact such interactions have on food and feed safety.


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