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Mycotoxins: Mitigation to Food and Ways of Control
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Mycotoxins: Mitigation to Food and Ways of Control

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Toxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2024) | Viewed by 6074

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xingquan Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Food and Health, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, China
Interests: grain quality safety; mycotoxin control
Dr. Zhaowei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Oil Crops Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
Interests: biosensors; point-of-care test; food safety; environmental monitoring; healthcare
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites commonly occurring in contaminated food and grain, which are associated with food safety and feed quality, and they pose a health risk to the human beings. The standard for maximum levels of mycotoxins in food has been established worldwide. Good agricultural practices, plant disease management, and adequate storage conditions limit mycotoxin levels in the food chain yet do not eliminate mycotoxins completely. Currently, aflatoxin, fumonisin, deoxynivalenol (DON), ochratoxin (OT), and zearalenone (ZEN) are the major mycotoxins. Mycotic occurrences can start in the field, harvesting, handling, storage, and processing. The risk of mycotoxins can be minimized during food processing through physical removal and decontamination into less toxic products. Physical removal includes manual sorting of grains, nuts, and fruits by farmers as well as automatic sorting by machine. Additionally, further processing such as milling, steeping, and extrusion can reduce mycotoxins as well. Mycotoxins can be detoxified chemically by reacting with food components and technical aids along with enzymes, and the reactions are facilitated by high temperatures and alkaline or acidic conditions. Though certain enzymes can naturally transform mycotoxins, more efficient detoxification should be achieved via the deliberate introduction of purified enzymes. Meanwhile, the analytical methods and technologies used in evaluating mycotoxin level and estimating their impact are also important. The development of detoxification and analytical technologies for high-risk commodities should be a priority for research.

This research topic aims to add new points about mycotoxin control in food and grain by presenting information about novel processing and degrading methods. This research topic focuses on novel strategies for pre-treatment, preparation, physicochemical degradation, and innovative analysis technologies, as well as any ways to reduce mycotoxin risk in food.

We welcome original research, reviews, methods, and opinion articles within, but not limited to, the subjects of:

  • Innovative degrading methods of mycotoxins from food and grain;
  • Novel analysis technology and methods of assessing mycotoxin level in food;
  • Ways to improve the food safety of mycotoxins;
  • New methods to utilize the food and grain contaminated by mycotoxins, and transferring them to some healthy food and safe products.

Prof. Dr. Xingquan Liu
Dr. Zhaowei Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mycotoxins
  • degradation
  • analysis
  • safety
  • removement
  • risk management
  • contaminated food utilization

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 3067 KiB  
Article
A Sustainable Approach for Degradation of Alternariol by Peroxidase Extracted from Soybean Hulls: Performance, Pathway, and Toxicity Evaluation
by Xingke Zhang, Hao Zheng, Hao Lv, Jiyuan Yin, Yi Li, Kexin Zhang, Liangyu Zhang, Wei Zhang, Zhixiang Wang, Lihong Zhao and Yongpeng Guo
Foods 2024, 13(15), 2434; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13152434 - 1 Aug 2024
Viewed by 978
Abstract
Alternariol (AOH), an emerging mycotoxin, inevitably exists widely in various food and feed commodities with cereals and fruits being particularly susceptible, raising global concerns over its harm to human and livestock health. The development of eco-friendly and efficient strategies to decontaminate AOH has [...] Read more.
Alternariol (AOH), an emerging mycotoxin, inevitably exists widely in various food and feed commodities with cereals and fruits being particularly susceptible, raising global concerns over its harm to human and livestock health. The development of eco-friendly and efficient strategies to decontaminate AOH has been an urgent task. This study provided insight into the utilization of crude soybean hull peroxidase as a powerful biocatalyst for degrading AOH. The results confirmed that crude soybean hull peroxidase (SHP) could catalyze the oxidation of AOH by use of H2O2 as a co-substrate. The optimum reaction conditions for SHP-catalyzed AOH degradation were recorded at pH 4.0–8.0, at 42–57 °C, and at H2O2 concentration of 100–500 μM. Mass analysis elucidated the degradation of AOH through hydroxylation and methylation by crude SHP. Moreover, toxicological analysis indicated that crude SHP-catalyzed AOH degradation detoxified the hepatotoxicity of this mycotoxin. The performance of crude SHP to degrade AOH in food matrices was further evaluated, and it was found that the enzyme agent could achieve AOH degradation by 77% in wheat flour, 84% in corn flour, 34% in grape juice, and 26% in apple juice. Collectively, these findings establish crude SHP as a promising candidate for effective AOH degradation, with potential applications in the food and feed industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxins: Mitigation to Food and Ways of Control)
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11 pages, 894 KiB  
Article
Analytical Determination of Aflatoxin in Ground Corn Check Samples Completed by Multiple Laboratories over Several Years
by Ronald W. Sarver, Alexander T. Kostin and Benjamin F. Strong
Foods 2024, 13(12), 1918; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13121918 - 18 Jun 2024
Viewed by 935
Abstract
Mycotoxins are toxic molecules produced by multiple fungal species, including Aspergillus and Fusarium. Fungal infection of crops can result in mycotoxins entering the animal and human food supply. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and other immunological assays have been developed to detect mycotoxins in [...] Read more.
Mycotoxins are toxic molecules produced by multiple fungal species, including Aspergillus and Fusarium. Fungal infection of crops can result in mycotoxins entering the animal and human food supply. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and other immunological assays have been developed to detect mycotoxins in foods. To calibrate the response of those methods, reference materials with known amounts of homogeneously dispersed mycotoxins are often utilized, where the mycotoxin concentrations have been determined using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with absorbance or fluorescence detection methods, or high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry detection methods. Therefore, it is important that the analytical methods provide accurate and precise quantitation of mycotoxins. The reference materials must also contain homogeneously dispersed known quantities of mycotoxin. To evaluate the accuracy and precision of mycotoxin reference materials and the analytical methods, quantitative results from multiple laboratories were completed each year for several years on ground corn check samples containing known levels of mycotoxins. Results for the quantitation of aflatoxin-containing corn reference samples are presented in this article. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxins: Mitigation to Food and Ways of Control)
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19 pages, 4638 KiB  
Article
A Novel Bacillus Velezensis for Efficient Degradation of Zearalenone
by Yijia Li, Songbiao Chen, Zuhua Yu, Jie Yao, Yanyan Jia, Chengshui Liao, Jian Chen, Ying Wei, Rongxian Guo, Lei He and Ke Ding
Foods 2024, 13(4), 530; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13040530 - 9 Feb 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1952
Abstract
Zearalenone (ZEN) is considered one of the most serious mycotoxins contaminating grains and their by-products, causing significant economic losses in the feed and food industries. Biodegradation pathways are currently considered the most efficient solution to remove ZEN contamination from foods. However, low degradation [...] Read more.
Zearalenone (ZEN) is considered one of the most serious mycotoxins contaminating grains and their by-products, causing significant economic losses in the feed and food industries. Biodegradation pathways are currently considered the most efficient solution to remove ZEN contamination from foods. However, low degradation rates and vulnerability to environmental impacts limit the application of biodegradation pathways. Therefore, the main research objective of this article was to screen strains that can efficiently degrade ZEN and survive under harsh conditions. This study successfully isolated a new strain L9 which can efficiently degrade ZEN from 108 food ingredients. The results of sequence alignment showed that L9 is Bacillus velezensis. Meanwhile, we found that the L9 degradation rate reached 91.14% at 24 h and confirmed that the primary degradation mechanism of this strain is biodegradation. The strain exhibits resistance to high temperature, acid, and 0.3% bile salts. The results of whole-genome sequencing analysis showed that, it is possible that the strain encodes the key enzyme, such as chitinase, carboxylesterases, and lactone hydrolase, that work together to degrade ZEN. In addition, 227 unique genes in this strain are primarily involved in its replication, recombination, repair, and protective mechanisms. In summary, we successfully excavated a ZEN-degrading, genetically distinct strain of Bacillus velezensis that provides a solid foundation for the detoxification of feed and food contamination in the natural environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxins: Mitigation to Food and Ways of Control)
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Review

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43 pages, 5616 KiB  
Review
Comprehensive Review of Aflatoxin and Ochratoxin A Dynamics: Emergence, Toxicological Impact, and Advanced Control Strategies
by Tiago de Melo Nazareth, Elisa Soriano Pérez, Carlos Luz, Giuseppe Meca and Juan Manuel Quiles
Foods 2024, 13(12), 1920; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13121920 - 18 Jun 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1574
Abstract
Filamentous fungi exhibit remarkable adaptability to diverse substrates and can synthesize a plethora of secondary metabolites. These metabolites, produced in response to environmental stimuli, not only confer selective advantages but also encompass potentially deleterious mycotoxins. Mycotoxins, exemplified by those originating from Alternaria, [...] Read more.
Filamentous fungi exhibit remarkable adaptability to diverse substrates and can synthesize a plethora of secondary metabolites. These metabolites, produced in response to environmental stimuli, not only confer selective advantages but also encompass potentially deleterious mycotoxins. Mycotoxins, exemplified by those originating from Alternaria, Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium species, represent challenging hazards to both human and animal health, thus warranting stringent regulatory control. Despite regulatory frameworks, mycotoxin contamination remains a pressing global challenge, particularly within cereal-based matrices and their derived by-products, integral components of animal diets. Strategies aimed at mitigating mycotoxin contamination encompass multifaceted approaches, including biological control modalities, detoxification procedures, and innovative interventions like essential oils. However, hurdles persist, underscoring the imperative for innovative interventions. This review elucidated the prevalence, health ramifications, regulatory paradigms, and evolving preventive strategies about two prominent mycotoxins, aflatoxins and ochratoxin A. Furthermore, it explored the emergence of new fungal species, and biocontrol methods using lactic acid bacteria and essential mustard oil, emphasizing their efficacy in mitigating fungal spoilage and mycotoxin production. Through an integrative examination of these facets, this review endeavored to furnish a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted challenges posed by mycotoxin contamination and the emergent strategies poised to ameliorate its impact on food and feed safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxins: Mitigation to Food and Ways of Control)
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