Research Publications (Food Safety)

In this study, we report a new method to prepare highly sensitive monoclonal antibody against α-zearalanol (ZAL) based on a similar antigen determinant structure. Zearalanone (ZAN), structural analogs of ZAL, was modified by oximation to obtain ZAN-O. ZAN-O was then coupled with bovine serum albumin using 1-ethyl-3- (3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) to synthesise the artificial complete antigen ZAN-O-BSA. ZAN-O-BSA was used to immunise the BALB/c mice.

Mycotoxins are natural food contaminants, associated with adverse health effects due to acute intoxication and, what is much more common, chronic exposure. The most hazardous and widespread mycotoxins are subjected to regulation in food in most countries. Alongside with regulated, a wide list of mycotoxins is monitored in various foods. Traditionally mycotoxins in tea are determined in a dry sample, not taking into account their transfer rate into the infusion.

Aflatoxin B1 is a potent carcinogen produced by Aspergillus flavus, mainly during grain storage. As pre-harvest methods are insufficient to avoid mycotoxin presence during storage, diverse curative techniques are being investigated for the inhibition of fungal growth and aflatoxin detoxification. Streptomyces spp. represent an alternative as they are a promising source of detoxifying enzymes.

Biomonitoring of biological samples arises as an effective tool to evaluate the exposure to mycotoxins in the population. Owing to the wide range of advantages, there is a growing interest in the use of non- and minimally invasive alternative sampling strategies, such as dried blood spot sampling or volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS). A VAMS-based multi-mycotoxin method was developed and validated for 24 different mycotoxins.

Author(s): Man Zhao, Yuan Wang, Xin Jia, Weina Liu, Xianghong Zhang, Jinfeng Cui

Author(s): Hongxia Tan, Hongyuan Zhou, Ting Guo, Yuhao Zhang, Jiaxin Li, Chi Zhang, Liang Ma

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of filamentous fungi that contaminate food products such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, beverages, and other agricultural commodities. Their occurrence in the food chain, especially in beverages, can pose a serious risk to human health, due to their toxicity, even at low concentrations.

Recent studies have implied that environmental toxins, such as mycotoxins, are risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases. To act directly as neurotoxins, mycotoxins need to penetrate or affect the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, which protects the mammalian brain from potentially harmful substances. As common food and feed contaminants of fungal origin, the interest in the potential neurotoxicity of ochratoxin A, citrinin and their metabolites has recently increased.

Author(s): Ola A.A. Khalil, Ali A. Hammad, Ahmed Salem Sebaei

Author(s): G.S. Bondy, I.H.C. Curran, L.C. Coady, C. Armstrong, C. Bourque, S. Bugiel, D. Caldwell, K. Kwong, D.E. Lefebvre, C. Maurice, F. Marchetti, P.P. Pantazopoulos, N. Ross, A.M. Gannon

Author(s): Hatice Taşpınar, Adil Elik, Savaş Kaya, Nail Altunay

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary fungal metabolites that frequently contaminate cereal crops globally, presenting exposure hazards to humans and livestock in many settings. The heterogeneous distribution of mycotoxins in food restricts the usefulness of food sampling and intake estimates for epidemiological studies, making validated exposure biomarkers better tools for informing epidemiological investigations.

Author(s): Dipendra Kumar Mahato, Madhu Kamle, Bharti Sharma, Shikha Pandhi, Sheetal Devi, Kajal Dhawan, Raman Selvakumar, Diwakar Mishra, Arvind Kumar, Shalini Arora, Namita Ashish Singh, Pradeep Kumar

Twelve halophyte species belonging to different families, widely represented along French Atlantic shoreline and commonly used in traditional medicine, were screened for protective activities against mycotoxins, in order to set out new promising sources of natural ingredients for feed applications.

Author(s): Haolei Li, Mengmeng Wang, Weili Kang, Ziman Lin, Fang Gan, Kehe Huang

Celiac disease (CD) is a genetic-based autoimmune disorder which is characterized by inflammation in the small intestinal mucosa due to the intolerance to gluten. Celiac people should consume products without gluten, which are elaborated mainly with maize or other cereals. Contamination of cereals with mycotoxins, such as fumonisins (FBs) and aflatoxins (AFs) is frequently reported worldwide. Therefore, food ingestion is the main source of mycotoxin exposure.

Author(s): Yahui Li, Yanxiao Li, Di Zhang, Weilong Tan, Jiyong Shi, Zhihua Li, Hanyu Liu, Yinyin Yu, Liu Yang, Xin Wang, Yunyun Gong, Xiaobo Zou

In recent years, the less-studied Alternaria mycotoxins have attracted increasing interest due to the lack of survey data and their ability to cause toxic effects in animals and humans. To fill the gap, the aim of this three-year survey was to investigate the presence and co-occurrence of Alternaria and other mycotoxins in a total of 433 cereal grain samples from Slovenian farms and agricultural cooperatives from 2014 to 2016. Using the multi-mycotoxin method, 14 mycotoxins were determined.

Author(s): Kunlu Bao, Xing Liu, Qi Xu, Bencao Su, Zilong Liu, Hongmei Cao, Qi Chen

Author(s): Mansooreh Mazaheri, Masoumeh Mahmoodi Maymand, Amir Gilasgar, Alireza Akbarzadeh, Mohammamad Hanif Manafi

The increased consumption of plant-based foods has intensified the concern related to mycotoxin intoxication. This study aimed to investigate the effect of selected lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains on the growth of Aspergillus parasiticus NRRL 2999 and its production of aflatoxin (AF).

Zearalenone (ZEA) is a mycotoxin widely occurring in many agricultural commodities. In this study, a purified bacterial isolate, Bacillus sp. S62-W, obtained from one of 104 corn silage samples from various silos located in the United States, exhibited activity to transform the mycotoxin ZEA. A novel microbial transformation product, ZEA-14-phosphate, was detected, purified, and identified by HPLC, LC-MS, and NMR analyses.

Author(s): Fojan Agahi, Ana Juan-García, Guillermina Font, Cristina Juan

In Ontario, Canada, Fusarium graminearum Schwabe causes Gibberella ear rot (GER) in maize, resulting in the accumulation of mycotoxins, mainly deoxynivalenol (DON), DON-3-glucoside (DON-3G) and zearalenone (ZEN) in infected kernels. Fungicides can be an important tool for managing GER and DON and other Fusarium mycotoxins in maize. Until recently, all fungicides available to growers were triazoles, thus no resistance management strategy through fungicide use was possible.

Zearalenone (ZEA) is a harmful secondary fungal metabolite, produced primarily by plant pathogenic fungi mostly belonging to the genus Fusarium. It is involved in reproductive disorders in animals since its structure is similar to the estrogen hormone. This induces precocious pubertal changes, fertility problems, and hyper estrogenic disorders.