Research Publications (Food Safety)

Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) is a pathogenic fungus that produces carcinogenic aflatoxins, posing a great threat to crops, animals and humans. Lysine acetylation is one of the most important reversible post‐translational modifications, and plays a vital regulatory role in various cellular processes. However, current information on the extent and function of lysine acetylation and aflatoxin biosynthesis in A. flavusis limited. Here, a global acetylome analysisof A.

Aflatoxins (AFs) as potent food contaminants are highly detrimental to human and animal health. The production of such biological toxins is influenced by environmental factors including pollutants, such as dioxins. Here, we report the biological feedback of an active AF-producer strain of A. flavus upon in vitro exposure to the most toxic congener of dioxins, the 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). The phenotype of TCDD-exposed A.

Author(s): M.P. Martínez, A.P. Magnoli, M.L. González Pereyra, L. Cavaglieri

Doenjang, a Korean fermented soybean paste, is vulnerable to contamination by mycotoxins because it is directly exposed to environmental microbiota during fermentation. A method that simultaneously determines 20 mycotoxins in doenjang, including aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), and fumonisins (FBs) with an immunoaffinity column cleanup was optimized and validated in doenjang using LC-MS/MS.

The purpose of this review is to present information about the role of activation of aflatoxins and other mycotoxins, of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) pathway. Aflatoxins and other mycotoxins are a diverse group of secondary metabolites that can be contaminants in a broad range of agricultural products and feeds. Some species of Aspergillus, Alternaria, Penicilium, and Fusarium are major producers of mycotoxins, some of which are toxic and carcinogenic.

Sample clean-up remains the most time-consuming and error-prone step in the whole analytical procedure for aflatoxins (AFTs) analysis. Herein, an automated and high-throughput sample clean-up platform was developed with a disposable, cost-effective immunoaffinity magnetic bead-based kit. Under optimized conditions, the automated method takes less than 30 min to simultaneously purify 20 samples without requiring any centrifugation or filtering steps.

A kind of molecularly imprinted polymers modified with biocompatible medium were prepared by suspension polymerization. The obtained hybrid materials were used as the adsorbents for the solid‐phase extraction of aflatoxins B1 in real samples. A structural analog of the target, 6‐methyl‐4‐phenylchroman‐2‐one was used as the pseudo‐template, owing to their lower toxicity and cheaper price compared with aflatoxins B1, and methacrylic acid and glycidyl methacrylate were used as the co‐monomers.

Author(s): Bingyong Lin, Palanisamy Kannan, Bin Qiu, Zhenyu Lin, Longhua Guo

Aflatoxins produced by the Aspergillus species are highly toxic, carcinogenic, and cause severe contamination to food sources, leading to serious health consequences. Contaminations by aflatoxins have been reported in food and feed, such as groundnuts, millet, sesame seeds, maize, wheat, rice, fig, spices and cocoa due to fungal infection during pre- and post-harvest conditions.

Inhibitory activity of caraway and juniper essential oils was tested against two aflatoxigenic strains (Aspergillus flavus—four isolates and Aspergillus parasiticus—one isolate) using the method of agar plates. A. flavus IKBT and A. flavus IKB isolated from corn flour, A. flavus IKT isolated from peanuts, and A. flavus IKK isolated from flint corn. A. parasiticus CBS 260.67 was obtained from the Centralbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS, Utrecht, The Netherlands).

Author(s): Hema Bhardwaj, Gajjala Sumana, Christophe A. Marquette

The manifestation of aflatoxins in feed and food is a major issue in the world as its presence leads to some health problems. This study investigates the incidence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) contamination in raw milk samples which were collected from Punjab, Pakistan. The Cluster Random Sampling technique was used to collect 960 milk samples from five different regions, and samples were collected every month. The AFM1 level in raw milk was analyzed by the ELISA technique.

Ultrasound is an emerging decontamination technology with potential use in the global food processing industry. In the present study, we explored power ultrasound for processing aqueous aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). AFB1 was degraded by 85.1% after 80 min of ultrasound exposure. The reaction products of AFB1 were identified and their molecular formulae elucidated by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography Q-Orbitrap mass spectrometry.

The larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L., BSFL) have received increased industrial interest as a novel protein source for food and feed. Previous research has found that insects, including BSFL, are capable of metabolically converting aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), but recovery of total AFB1 is less than 20% when accounting for its conversion to most known metabolites.

Rice grains can be attacked by a range of pathogens, including Aspergillus species, which can cause the accumulation of aflatoxins and represent a serious threat to the consumers. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites synthesized by Aspergillus species and naturally occur in various foodstuffs. In this study, we sought to analyze the prevalence of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus spp. in rice grains currently sold in Kenyan local markets.

Dried blood spots (DBSs), a micro-sampling technique whereby a drop of blood is collected on filter paper has multiple advantages over conventional blood sampling regarding the sampling itself, as well as transportation and storage. This is the first paper describing the development and validation of a method for the determination of 23 mycotoxins and phase I metabolites in DBSs from pigs and broiler chickens using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Peanuts are widely consumed in many local dishes in southeast Asian countries, especially in Malaysia which is one of the major peanut-importing countries in this region. Therefore, Aspergillus spp. and aflatoxin contamination in peanuts during storage are becoming major concerns due to the tropical weather in this region that favours the growth of aflatoxigenic fungi.

Citrinin (CIT) is a mycotoxin that has been detected in agricultural products, feedstuff, and Monascus products. At present, research has been performed to develop methods for CIT detection, mainly through TLC, HPLC, biosensor, and immunoassay. The immunoassay method is popular with researchers because of its speed, economy, simplicity, and ease of control. However, mycotoxins are inevitably introduced during the determination.

ABSTRACT