Research Publications (Food Safety)

Mycotoxin contamination of cereals used for feed can cause intoxication, especially in farm animals; therefore, efficient analytical tools for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of toxic fungal metabolites in feed are required. Current trends in food/feed analysis are focusing on the application of biosensor technologies that offer fast and highly selective and sensitive detection with minimal sample treatment and reagents required.

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites that are produced by molds during their development. According to fungal physiological particularities, mycotoxins can contaminate crops before harvest or during storage. Among toxins that represent a real public health issue, those produced by Fusarium genus in cereals before harvest are of great importance since they are the most frequent in European productions. Among them, deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FUM) frequently contaminate maize.

Fumonisin B (FB) and other fumonisins, deoxynivalenol (DON), and zearalenone (ZEN) are mycotoxins (secondary metabolites of fungi) present at high levels of contamination in poultry diets and threatening the sustainability of the poultry industry and egg safety for consumers. However, residual mycotoxins in breeder eggs and their effects on chicken progeny and gizzard ulcerations remain unclear.

Author(s): Hongwen Xu, Jiadi Sun, Haiming Wang, Yinzhi Zhang, Xiulan Sun

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.

Ochratoxins (OTs) are mycotoxins frequently found in wines, and their contamination can occur during any stage of the winemaking process. Ochratoxin A (OTA) has been the most widely reported and the only one whose concentrations are legislated in this beverage.

Mycotoxins, toxins of fungal origin, can directly or indirectly contaminate food and feed and are poisonous to livestock and humans. While a large amount is known about their occurrence in crops, food, and feeds, little is known about mycotoxin amounts in soil. However, soil is known as a major fungal habitat and a potential sink for mycotoxins in the environment.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of modified clinoptilolite (Minazel Plus®, MZ) as a mycotoxin adsorbent for preventing the negative the effects of ochratoxin A (OTA) on performance, pathohistological changes, and OTA residue in the eggs of laying hens.

Author(s): Bolei Yang, Li Li, Hairong Geng, Chenxi Zhang, Gang Wang, Shuo Yang, Sheng Gao, Yueju Zhao, Fuguo Xing

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.

In 2017–2018, extensive symptoms of sudden decline and fruit rot were observed on date palms in southern Tunisia. Samples of diseased plants were randomly collected in six localities. Based on morphological identification, Fusarium was the most frequent fungal genus detected.

An increasing number of Bacillus strains have been identified, and the removal capacity of zearalenone (ZEN) was determined; however, they failed to reveal the detoxification mechanism and transformation product. Here, Bacillus subtilis Y816, which could transform 40 mg/L of ZEN within 7 h of fermentation, was identified and studied.

Zearalenone (ZEN) and its metabolites, alpha-zearalenol (α-ZEL) and beta-zearalenol (β-ZEL), are ubiquitous in plant materials used as feed components in dairy cattle diets.

At exactly the individual permitted EU-tolerance dietary limits, fumonisins (FB: 5 mg/kg diet) and mixed fusariotoxins (DZ: 0.9 mg deoxynivalenol + 0.1 mg zearalenone/kg diet, and FDZ: 5 mg fumonisins + 0.9 mg deoxynivalenol + 0.1 mg zearalenone/kg diet) were administered to piglets (n = 6/group) for three weeks. Bodyweights of intoxicated piglets increased, while feed conversion ratios decreased. In FDZ, both the absolute and relative weight of the liver decreased.

A biocontrol method plays an important role in weed management. In this study, we aimed to clarify the phytotoxicity of the mycotoxin patulin (PAT) and reveal its mode of action as a new natural photosystem II (PSII) inhibitor. Phytotoxicity test showed that PAT has herbicidal activity and causes significant leaf lesions on Ageratina adenophora.

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).

Author(s): Yesica Lambrese, Gabriela Sansone, María Isabel Sanz, Susana Noemí Di Masi, Julio Raba, Viviana Calvente

Author(s): Lin Li, Tongtong Zhang, Xiaohan Ren, Bingxin Li, Shangqian Wang

A microcosm study was conducted at two different temperatures under laboratory conditions to investigate the regulatory capacity and the interactive performance of two soil fauna species (Aporrectodea caliginosa, earthworms, and Proisotoma minuta, collembolans) on the reduction of Fusarium toxins in contaminated maize stubbles.

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.

The certified reference materials (CRMs) are necessary for accurate quantification and insurance of comparability and traceability of results. Patulin is a typical mycotoxin in a variety of food commodities. Here, patulin CRM GBW(E)100673 was characterised and its purity was assessed by two independent orthogonal approaches including mass balance (MB) and quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (qNMR) methods.

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.

The present study investigated the presence of 30 mycotoxins in 110 beverage samples of beer, wine, cava, and cider purchased in Valencia (Spain). A validated method based on dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction and chromatographic methods coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was applied. The method showed satisfactory recoveries ranging from 61 to 116% for the different beverages studied.

We present a biological profile of 16 Aspergillus niger environmental isolates from different types of soils and solid substrates across a pH range, from an ultra-acidic (<3.5) to a very strongly alkaline (>9.0) environment. The soils and solid substrates also differ in varying degrees of anthropic pollution, which in most cases is caused by several centuries of mining activity at old mining sites, sludge beds, ore deposits, stream sediments, and coal dust.

In the food industry, microbiological safety is a major concern. Mycotoxin patulin represents a potential health hazard, as it is heat-resistant and may develop at any stage during the food chain, especially in apple-based products, leading to severe effects on human health, poor quality products, and profit reductions. The target of the study was to identify and characterize an excellent adsorbent to remove patulin from apple juice efficiently and to assess its adsorption mechanism.