Research Publications (Food Safety)

Exposure to environmental contaminants might play an important role in neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis, such as Parkinson´s disease (PD) and Alzheimer´s disease (AD). For the first time in Spain, the plasmatic levels of 19 mycotoxins from patients diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease (44 PD and 24 AD) and from their healthy companions (25) from La Rioja region were analyzed.

Author(s): Alejandro Ortega-Beltran, Ranajit Bandyopadhyay

The development of detection method for aflatoxin gene cluster in Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticusis is an effective approach to prevent the widespread of aflatoxins, which are considered as extremely, toxic substances. Herein, a hairpin DNA-assisted fluorescence probe switch based on Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) was designed.

Author(s): Umaya Suganthi R, Y.C. Vijayalakshmi, V. Sejian

Author(s): Kunyi He, Tong Bu, Shuang Zhao, Feier Bai, Meng Zhang, Yongming Tian, Xinyu Sun, Mengna Dong, Li Wang

Pastures are key feed sources for dairy production and can be contaminated with several secondary metabolites from fungi and plants with toxic or endocrine-disrupting activities, which possess a risk for the health, reproduction and performance of cattle. This exploratory study aimed to determine the co-occurrences and concentrations of a wide range of mycotoxins, phytoestrogens and other secondary metabolites in grazing pastures.

Author(s): Ya-Chih Cheng, Ting-Shuan Wu, Ying-Tzu Huang, Yung Chang, Jiann-Jou Yang, Feng-Yih Yu, Biing-Hui Liu

Author(s): Kim Lara Gützkow, Johanna Ebmeyer, Nina Kröncke, Nadja Kampschulte, Linda Böhmert, Cindy Schöne, Nils Helge Schebb, Rainer Benning, Albert Braeuning, Ronald Maul

Phytobiotics with a mycotoxin adsorbent were used to mitigate negative effects of multiple mycotoxins in diets fed to pigs. In experiment 1, 120 pigs (11.6 kg body weight; BW) were assigned to five treatments (three pigs/pen) and fed for 28 days. Treatments were CON (control), MTD (CON + 2.5 mg/kg of deoxynivalenol), DP (MTD + phytobiotics at 0.1%), and DPA1 and DPA2 (MTD + phytobiotics and adsorbent at 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively).

As milk provides both micro- and macronutrients, it is an important component in the diet. However, the presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in the feed of dairy cattle results in contamination of milk and dairy products with aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), a toxic metabolite of the carcinogenic mycotoxin. With the aim to determine AFM1 concentrations in milk and milk products consumed in Bangladesh, in total, 145 samples were collected in four divisional regions (Sylhet, Dhaka, Chittagong, and Rajshahi).

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), and deoxynivalenol (DON) are frequent mycotoxins that may cause carcinogenic, mutagenic, estrogenic, or gastrointestinal effects. The aim of this study was to assess the exposure to and risk from AFB1, OTA, ZEN, and DON in 172 participants of the Maule Cohort (MAUCO) by a biomarker analysis in urine and to associate their exposure with food consumption and occupation.

In 2017, a Total Diet Study was conducted in the Netherlands in which mycotoxins were analysed in foods and beverages consumed by 1- and 2-year-old children. These mycotoxins were aflatoxins, Alternaria toxins, citrinin, ergot alkaloids, fumonisins, ochratoxin A, patulin, sterigmatocystin, trichothecenes, and zearalenone. Long-term exposure was calculated by combining concentrations in foods and beverages with consumed amounts of these products.

Breast milk is the best, most complete form of nutrition for newborns and infants. However, human milk can contain aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) upon ingestion of dietary mycotoxin contaminants, namely, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), by lactating mothers. AFB1 and its hydroxylated metabolite AFM1 are potent carcinogens and thus an important issue in food safety and public health.

Bacillus sp. H16v8 and Bacillus sp. HGD9229 were identified as Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) degrader in nutrient broth after a 12 h incubation at 37 °C. The degradation efficiency of the two-strain supernatant on 100 μg/L AFB1 was higher than the bacterial cells and cell lysate. Moreover, degradations of AFB1 were strongly affected by the metal ions in which Cu2+ stimulated the degradation and Zn2+ inhibited the degradation.

Author(s): Inass Mollayusefian, Vahid Ranaei, Zahra Pilevar, Marina M.S. Cabral-Pinto, Ali Rostami, Amene Nematolahi, Khaled Mohamed Khedher, Van Nam Thai, Yadolah Fakhri, Amin Mousavi Khaneghah

Background
Despite numerous studies regarding the prevalence of AFM1 in Milk, no systematic review and meta-analysis study on a global scale was conducted.

Peanuts are frequently infected by Aspergillus strains and then contaminated by aflatoxins (AF), which brings out economic losses and health risks. AF production is affected by diverse environmental factors, especially water activity (aw). In this study, A. flavus was inoculated into peanuts with different aw (0.90, 0.95, and 0.99). Both AFB1 yield and conidia production showed the highest level in aw 0.90 treatment.

Synergistic interaction of adsorbents in reducing the adverse impacts of mycotoxin on performance and proximate composition of broiler feeds was investigated. Fungal growth was induced by sprinkling water on the feed. S. cerevisiae + bentonite, kaolin + bentonite or S. cerevisiea + kaolin adsorbent combinations (1.5 g/kg feed) were added and the feeds were stored in black polythene bags.

The co-occurrence of multiple mycotoxins, including aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), zearalenone (ZEN) and deoxynivalenol (DON), widely exists in cereal-based animal feed and food. At present, most reported mycotoxins degrading enzymes target only a certain type of mycotoxins. Therefore, it is of great significance for mining enzymes involved in the simultaneous degradation of different types of mycotoxins.

Author(s): Di Sun, Jin Mao, Zhijian Wang, Hui Li, Liangxiao Zhang, Wen Zhang, Qi Zhang, Peiwu Li

Spain is a relevant producer of oats (Avena sativa), but to date there has been no study on the occurrence/co-occurrence of mycotoxins in oats marketed in Spain. The present study is addressed to overcome this lack of knowledge.

Author(s): Ziwei Wang, Yanan Gao, Xin Huang, Shengnan Huang, Xue Yang, Jiaqi Wang, Nan Zheng

Peanut and its processed products are recurrently contaminated with aflatoxins (AFs) which are of potential public health concern. Among the different types of AFs, Aflatoxin B1 (B1) is the most frequently detected in peanuts over the maximum level (ML), and thus has warranted considerable research interest in the domain of food safety.

The study explores the antioxidant activity, volatile chemical profile and antifungal potential of Pimenta dioica leaf essential oil (EO) against toxin producing Aspergillus flavus. GC–MS analysis of EO revealed the presence of 41 compounds with eugenol (54%), as the major compound followed by myrcene (16.0%) and chavicol (12.5%).

In the course of assessing the human exposure to mycotoxins, biomarker-based approaches have proven to be important tools. Low concentration levels, complex matrix compositions, structurally diverse analytes, and the large size of sample cohorts are the main challenges of analytical procedures.

Fungal spoilage is one of the main reasons of economic losses in the food industry, especially in the wine sector. Consequently, the search for safer and new preservation techniques has gained importance in recent years. The objective of this study was to investigate the antifungal and anti-mycotoxigenic activity from 28 microorganisms (MO) isolated from red grape.