Research Publications (Food Safety)

Author(s): Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim, Mahmoud A.O. Dawood, Abdullah A. AlKahtane, Ahmed Abdeen, Hany M.R. Abdel-Latif, Hoda H. Senousy, Lotfi Aleya, Saad Alkahtani

In warm regions, agricultural fields are occupied by complex Aspergillus flavus communities composed of isolates in many vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) with varying abilities to produce highly toxic, carcinogenic aflatoxins. Aflatoxin contamination is reduced with biocontrol products that enable atoxigenic isolates from atoxigenic VCGs to dominate the population.

One of the concerns when using grain ingredients in feed formulation for livestock and poultry diets is mycotoxin contamination. Aflatoxin, fumonisin, ochratoxin, trichothecene (deoxynivalenol, T-2 and HT-2) and zearalenone (ZEN) are mycotoxins that have been frequently reported in animal feed. ZEN, which has raised additional concern due to its estrogenic response in animals, is mainly produced by Fusarium graminearum (F. graminearum), F. culmorum, F. cerealis, F. equiseti, F.

Aflatoxins represent one of the biggest public health problems in food safety, due to their toxic potential for humans and animals. They can lead to serious threats, such as hepatotoxicity, teratogenicity and immunotoxicity. Maize is the most important cereal consumed in Mexico, with which tortillas, tamales, flours, toasts and other products are elaborated.

The adverse effect of Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and the beneficial effects of gallic Acid (GA) against AFB1 induced toxicity in vitro have been published. Here we present in vivo findings on AFB1 and GA on hepatorenal function in rats, exposed to AFB1 only or co‐treated with GA for 28 successive days. AFB1 significantly increased pro‐inflammatory biomarkers, suppressed IL‐10 levels, and increased oxidative stress in rats’ liver and kidney.

Chlorpyrifos (CPF) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) are each known to adversely affect hepatic tissue individually, but their combined hepatic effects have never been previously investigated. HepG2 cell viability, oxidative status, and genetic impairment were examined after exposing HepG2 cells to: (1) CPF alone, (2) AFB1 alone, and (3) CPF and AFB1 combined (20:1).

Mycotoxins are toxic compounds for humans and animals that are produced by fungi. Mycotoxin contamination in feed is a global safety concern and effective control of these compounds in this matrix is needed.

Dried beef meat, a locally processed meat from the cow, is vulnerable to contamination by mycotoxins, due to its exposure to the environmental microbiota during processing, drying, and point of sale. In this study, 108 dried beef samples were examined for the occurrence of 17 mycotoxins.

Author(s): Somenath Das, Vipin Kumar Singh, Abhishek Kumar Dwivedy, Anand Kumar Chaudhari, Nawal Kishore Dubey

The interaction between Aspergillus flavus and Zea mays is complex, and the identification of plant genes and pathways conferring resistance to the fungus has been challenging. Therefore, the authors undertook a systems biology approach involving dual RNA-seq to determine the simultaneous response from the host and the pathogen. What was dramatically highlighted in the analysis is the uniformity in the development patterns of gene expression of the host and the pathogen during infection.

Background Aflatoxins, a kind of carcinogen, have attracted increasing attentions due to their toxicity and harmfulness to human health. Traditional methods for aflatoxins analysis usually involve tedious extraction steps with subsequent derivatization process. Herein, a simple and efficient liquid phase micro‐extraction (LPME) method based on deep eutectic solvents (DESs) for direct analysis of aflatoxins was developed.

Author(s): Ahmed Salem Sebaei, Hoda M. Refai, Hannah Tarek Elbadry, Sandra Mounir Armeya

Author(s): Esther GARCIA-CELA, Carol VERHEECKE-VAESSEN, Maria GUTIERREZ-POZO, Elisavet KIAITSI, Alessandra MARCON-GASPERINI, Naresh MAGAN, Angel MEDINA

Author(s): Bolong Fang, Shaolan Xu, Youju Huang, Fengmei Su, Zhen Huang, Hao Fang, Juan Peng, Yonghua Xiong, Weihua Lai

Different batches of biomass/feed quality maize contaminated by aflatoxins were processed at the industrial scale (a continuous process and separate discontinuous steps) to evaluate the effect of different cleaning solutions on toxin reduction.

Author(s): Shirin Hooshfar, Roya Khosrokhavar, Hassan Yazdanpanah, Samira Eslamizad, Farzad Kobarfard, Firuzeh Nazari, Venetia Kokaraki, Manolis Kokkinakis, Marina Goumenou, Christina Tsitsimpikou, Aristides Tsatsakis

Author(s): Anupam Kujur, Akshay Kumar, Amrita Yadav, Bhanu Prakash

Royal jelly (RJ) and propolis were able to inhibit the growth of Aspergillus parasiticus with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 3,200 and 100 μg/ml, respectively. Combination of RJ and propolis resulted in synergistic interaction with MICs of 200 and 25 μg/ml, respectively, and a fractional inhibitory concentration index of 0.312. RJ and propolis were able to down‐regulate the expression of the aflR gene and dramatically decrease the aflatoxin production by A. parasiticus.

Author(s): Yang Yu, Jianyang Shi, Bingying Xie, Yutong He, Yongping Qin, Dan Wang, Haichun Shi, Yongpei Ke, Qun Sun

Author(s): Bolei Yang, Chenxi Zhang, Xiujuan Zhang, Gang Wang, Li Li, Hairong Geng, Yang Liu

A new method for the quantification of four aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2) in baby food samples is described herein. In this method, the extraction/cleanup step was performed by using multi-walled carbon nanotubes as a sorbent material in a dispersive solid phase procedure. In sequence, these mycotoxins were quantified via liquid chromatographic coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The method was fully validated according to the EC/657/2002 and SANCO/12571/2013 directives.

Author(s): Junmin Ji, Yulan Liu, Dongmin Wang

Author(s): Meseret Amde, Ayalew Temsgen, Nigussie Dechassa

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in investigating the carcinogenicity of mycotoxins in humans. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of data linking exposure to different mycotoxins with human cancer risk. Publications (2019 and earlier) of case–control or longitudinal cohort studies were identified in PubMed and EMBASE. These articles were then screened by independent reviewers and their quality was assessed according to the Newcastle–Ottawa scale.

Food and crop contaminations with mycotoxins are a severe health risk for consumers and cause high economic losses worldwide. Currently, different chromatographic- and immuno-based methods are used to detect mycotoxins within different sample matrices. There is a need for novel, highly sensitive detection technologies that avoid time-consuming procedures and expensive laboratory equipment but still provide sufficient sensitivity to achieve the mandated detection limit for mycotoxin content.