Research Publications (Food Safety)

Identifying the risk of ochratoxin A in our daily food has become fundamental because of its toxicity. In this work, we report a novel semi-automated in-syringe-based fast mycotoxin extraction (IS-FaMEx) technique coupled with direct-injection electrospray-ionization tandem mass spectrometer (ESI-MS/MS) detection for the quantification of ochratoxin A in coffee and tea samples.

Zearalenone (ZEA) is a mycotoxin commonly found in cereals and feedstuffs, which can induce oxidative stress and inflammation to cause liver damage in humans and animals. Betulinic acid (BA) is extracted from pentacyclic triterpenoids of many natural plants and has anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidation biological activities in many studies. However, the protective effect of BA on liver injury induced by ZEA has not been reported.

Breakfast processed products are remarkably at risk of fungal contamination. This research surveyed the fumonisins concentration in different breakfast products and carried out in vitro experiments measuring fumonisins content in different substrates inoculated with Fusarium verticillioides. The pipeline started with the identification of combinations of ingredients for 58 breakfast products.

Determination of aflatoxins as a group of potent contaminations in many food products is a common analysis in food quality control laboratories. For quantification of the four most toxic aflatoxins (AFs) (i,e. AF B1, B2, G1, and G2) in food and feed, a standard method involving a liquid extraction step followed by immunoaffinity purification and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is often used.

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), millions of people depend on maize as a primary staple. However, maize consumers in SSA may be exposed to malnutrition due to vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and unsafe aflatoxin levels, which can lead to serious economic and public health problems. Provitamin A (PVA) biofortified maize has been developed to alleviate VAD and may have additional benefits such as reduced aflatoxin contamination.

In this study, a herd of Japanese Black (JB) breeding cattle with sporadic reproductive disorders was continuously monitored for an additional year to assess the effects of the urinary zearalenone (ZEN) concentration and changes in parameters (AMH and SAA) with time-lag variables and herd fertility (reproductive performance). This herd had high (exceeded the Japanese dietary feed regulations) urinary ZEN and rice straw ZEN concentrations (1.34 mg/kg).

Aflatoxin, with higher toxicity, is widely found in grains such as peanut and corn. This study proposes an unsupervised learning method to detect aflatoxin based on deep spectral features.

In this study, based on the high-throughput automatic sample pretreatment with immunoaffinity magnetic beads with oriented immobilized antibodies, grain and feed fumonisin (FB) content was detected using pre-column automatic derivatization of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The FB capacity of well-oriented antibody immunoaffinity magnetic beads was 1.5−1.8 times that of magnetic beads with randomly fixed antibody.

In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the concentration and health risk of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), heavy metals (HMs), and phthalate acid esters (PAEs) in peanut samples in Shandong Province, China, and 255 peanut samples were collected from 20 counties in 2020.

The aim of this study was to monitor the aflatoxin M1 contamination in raw milk and drinking milk in Hungary over a one-year period. A total of 474 milk samples of raw milk (n=278) commercial milk (n=196) were collected and analysed between September 2021 and November 2022. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) determined the concentration of AFM1.

The uses of natural plant origin bioactive compounds are emerging as a promising strategy to detoxify aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). This study aimed to explore the potential of cooking, phytochemicals content, and antioxidant activities derived from garlic, ginger, cardamom, and black cumin to detoxify AFB1 on spice mix red pepper powder (berbere) and sauté.

Different mycotoxins in feed lead to combined exposure, increasing adverse effects on animal health. Trichothecene mycotoxins have been associated with inducing oxidative stress, which is neutralized by the glutathione system within the antioxidant defense, depending on the dose and duration of exposure. T-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol (DON), and fumonisin B1 (FB1) are commonly found in feed commodities simultaneously.

The COP9 signalosome (Csn) complex is an evolutionarily conserved complex that regulates various important cellular processes. However, the function of the Csn complex in pathogenic fungi remains elusive. Here, the distribution of Csn subunits in the fungal kingdom was surveyed, and their biological functions were systematically characterized in the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum, which is among the top 10 plant fungal pathogens.

Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain strains of fungi that can contaminate raw feed materials. Once ingested, even in small doses, they cause multiple health issues for animals and, downstream, for people consuming meat. It was proposed that inclusion of antioxidant-rich plant-derived feed might diminish the harmful effects of mycotoxins, maintaining the farm animals’ health and meat quality for human consumption.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is known as a vomitoxin, which frequently contaminates feedstuffs, such as corn, wheat, and barley. Intake of DON-contaminated feed has been known to cause undesirable effects, including diarrhea, emesis, reduced feed intake, nutrient malabsorption, weight loss, and delay in growth, in livestock. However, the molecular mechanism of DON-induced damage of the intestinal epithelium requires further investigation.

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused mainly by Fusarium graminearum, is one of the most dangerous diseases of durum wheat. This hemibiotrophic pathogen transitions from the biotrophic phase, during which it penetrates host tissues and secretes trichothecenes, to the necrotrophic phase which leads to the destruction of host tissues. Yeasts applied to spikes often reduce mycotoxin concentrations, but the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.

Deoxynivalenol (DON), one of the main mycotoxins with enteric toxicity, genetic toxicity, and immunotoxicity, and is widely found in corn, barley, wheat, and rye. In order to achieve effective detoxification of DON, the least toxic 3-epi-DON (1/357th of the toxicity of DON) was chosen as the target for degradation. Quinone-dependent dehydrogenase (QDDH) reported from Devosia train D6-9 detoxifies DON by converting C3-OH to a ketone group with toxicity of less than 1/10 that of DON.

Mycotoxins can be transferred to breast milk during lactation. Hence, the presence of multiple mycotoxins (aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2, and M1, alpha and beta zearalanol, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins B1, B2, B3, and hydrolyzed B1, nivalenol, ochratoxin A, ochratoxin alpha, and zearalenone) in breast milk samples was assessed in our study. Furthermore, the relationship between total fumonisins and pre/post-harvest and the women’s dietary practices was examined.

The major safety risk of maize grain is contamination with mycotoxins. In this study, a maize-coating formulation containing freeze-dried culture filtrate of Streptomyces philanthi RL-1-178 (DCF RL-1-178) was developed and evaluated to prevent the growth of mycotoxins during maize grain storage. In vitro studies using confrontation tests on PDA plates indicated that S.

This work established a novel nucleic acid aptamer sensor for the sensitive and selective detection of AFB1 (Aflatoxin B1), which has important implication for food safety. In a word, we synthesized MXene/MWCNTs/NiCo2O4 composite nanomaterials to improve the sensitivity of the aptamer sensor. The surface of the composite nanomaterials was modified with PDA (poly dopamine) in order to immobilize the NH2-cDNA-aptamer complex on the electrode surface by the Schiff base reaction.

International Journal of Dairy Technology, EarlyView. Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a carcinogenic mycotoxin mostly found in dairy products.

Lateral flow strip was widely used and their qualitative and quantitative performance was in continuous improvement. However, the traditional strip was in a single-test-line format, which restricted operators to making a semi-quantitative judgment around a desired threshold concentration. Herein, a single strip with three test lines (TTLS) was developed for the semi-quantitative and quantitative determination of deoxynivalenol (DON).

Fusarium mycotoxins commonly contaminate agricultural products resulting in a serious threat to both animal and human health. The co-occurrence of different mycotoxins in the same cereal field is very common, so the risks as well as the functional and ecological effects of mycotoxins cannot always be predicted by focusing only on the effect of the single contaminants.

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain fungi, which can contaminate various food commodities, including fruits and their derived products. Patulin and Alternaria toxins are among the most commonly encountered mycotoxins in fruit and their derived products. In this review, the sources, toxicity, and regulations related to these mycotoxins, as well as their detection and mitigation strategies are widely discussed.

Fusarium toxins are one of the most common contaminants in poultry diets. The co-occurrence of fumonisins (FUM) and deoxynivalenol (DON), even at a subclinical dose, negatively affects the growth performance, intestinal integrity and induce subclinical necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens. Loss of gut integrity can be expected to alter the intestinal microbiota’s composition.