Research Publications (Food Safety)

Early 2013, high concentrations of aflatoxin M1 were found in the bulk milk of a few dairy farms in the Netherlands. These high concentrations were caused by aflatoxin B1 contaminated maize from Eastern Europe that was processed into compound feed, which was fed to dairy cows. Since the contamination was discovered in the downstream stages of the supply chain, multiple countries and parties were involved and recalls of the feed were necessary, resulting into financial losses.

Author(s): Ashish Pokharel, Patrick Webb, Johanna Andrews-Trevino, Ashish Lamichhane, Robin Shrestha, Sudikshya Acharya, Dale Davis, Kedar Baral, Jia-Sheng Wang, Kathy Xue, Krishna Paudel, Shibani Ghosh

Author(s): Awa Sanou, Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie, Vincenzina Caputo, John Kerr

Aflatoxins and fumonisins commonly contaminate key food staples in tropical countries, causing recurring acute and chronic public health problems. The present study was conducted to assess the potential of a simple device designed for density-based sorting of maize for its potential to reduce aflatoxins and fumonisins in diverse samples of naturally contaminated maize. A cross sectional survey was conducted, analysing market maize samples (n=204) from eight counties in Western Kenya.

India is the largest jute and fifth largest maize producing country in the world. In India maize is commonly stored and transported in jute bags which are used multiple times. Aflatoxin contamination of maize is a major issue in India. This study evaluated the potential impact of re-using jute bags on the risk of aflatoxin contamination of maize in the food supply chain. A total of 121 jute bags were collected in India; 95 had been used for maize and 26 bags were new.

International Journal of Food Science & Technology, Accepted Article. Samples of flour derived from an organic wheat seed cultivated in the region Abruzzo (Central Italy) were examined for detection of aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, ochratoxin A and zearalenone after storage in presence of oxygen or under vacuum, for one year.

Author(s): Boyu Jia, Xiaofang Liao, Chaonan Sun, Ling Fang, Lidong Zhou, Weijun Kong

The major objective of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory effect of essential oil (EO) from Zanthoxylum armatum DC. on Aspergillus flavus. The chemical composition of the EO was identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometer. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of EO was investigated by liquid fermentation. The morphology, colony number, and aflatoxin content of A.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a toxic fungal metabolite associated with human and animal diseases, is a natural contaminant encountered in agricultural commodities, food and feed. Heterogeneity of AFB1 makes risk estimation a challenge. To overcome this, novel sample selection, preparation and extraction steps were designed for representative sampling of chicken feed.

Journal of Food Safety, EarlyView. Despite the considerable importance of dairy consumption, aflatoxin‐M1 (AFM1) contamination can pose potential health threats for these products. In the present study, we systematically reviewed and conducted a meta‐analysis on the AFM1 contamination in yogurt samples of West Asia region.

Meat-products are considered an enriched media for mycotoxins. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of toxigenic Aspergillus species in processed meat samples, HPLC-quantitative measurement of aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A residues, and molecular sequencing of aflR1 and pks genes. One hundred and twenty processed beef meat specimens (basterma, sausage, and minced meat; n = 40 for each) were collected from Ismailia Province, Egypt.

Author(s): Xiaotong Li, Zhiming Lv, Jia Chen, Eugenie Nepovimova, Miao Long, Wenda Wu, Kamil Kuca

Author(s): Bozidar Udovicki, Nikola Tomic, Bojana Spirovic Trifunovic, Sasa Despotovic, Jelena Jovanovic, Liesbeth Jacxsens, Andreja Rajkovic

Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins that can affect livestock health and performance upon consumption of contaminated feedstuffs. To mitigate the negative effects of mycotoxins, sequestering agents, adsorbents, or binders can be included to feed to interact with toxins, aiding their passage through the gastrointestinal tract (GI) and reducing their bioavailability.

Author(s): Hamada Elwan, Chao Xie, L.P. Miao, Xinyang Dong, Xiao‐ting Zou, Mohamed Mohany, Mohammed M Ahmed, Salim S Al-Rejaie, S.S. Elnesr

This study establishes a rapid and accurate method to identify aflatoxin contamination in peanut oil. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, combined with either partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) or a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, were used to construct discriminative models for distinguishing between uncontaminated and aflatoxin-contaminated peanut oil.

Aflatoxins (AFs) are among the most harmful fungal secondary metabolites imposing serious health risks on both household animals and humans. The more frequent occurrence of aflatoxins in the feed and food chain is clearly foreseeable as a consequence of the extreme weather conditions recorded most recently worldwide. Furthermore, production parameters, such as unadjusted variety use and improper cultural practices, can also increase the incidence of contamination.

Author(s): Tingting Fan, Yanli Xie, Weibin Ma

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hydroxylated metabolite of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) that can be excreted in milk of cows after consuming contaminated feed. The aim of this study consisted of a field monitoring to assess the contamination levels of AFB1 in 60 feed samples from two feeding systems for high-yielding dairy cows and of AFM1 in the corresponding raw milk samples.

Multiple mycotoxins were tested in milled rice samples (n = 200) from traders at different milling points within the Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Kenya. Traders provided the names of the cultivar, village where paddy was cultivated, sampling locality, miller, and month of paddy harvest between 2018 and 2019.

Author(s): Simranjot Kaur, Jasbir Singh Bedi, Pankaj Dhaka, Deepthi Vijay, Rabinder Singh Aulakh

Author(s): Haiyan Zhou, Na Liu, Zheng Yan, Dianzhen Yu, Lan Wang, Kunbo Wang, Xinlin Wei, Aibo Wu

Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, EarlyView. Contamination of African staple foods is a major issue for human and animal health, nutrition, and trade. This review aimed to collect and synthesize the available evidence on geographical spread, scale of contamination, disease burden, economic impact, and mitigation measures for aflatoxins in Africa by way of a systematic literature review.

Author(s): Guangming Li, Chen Liu, Xingcai Zhang, Pengjie Luo, Guimiao Lin, Wenxiao Jiang

Author(s): Durmuş Sert, Emin Mercan