Mycotoxin food monitoring

Table 9.4. Reference values and their utilization for two mycotoxins (food monitoring 1995-2002)... 

In the course of food monitoring between 1995 and 2002, more than 40 foods were tested for the presence of aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, fumosins, patulin, ochratoxin A und zearalenone. Individual mycotoxins were detected in 21% of the samples pistachios were especially conspicuous. 

The most obvious impact of mycotoxins is the inability to sell crops for human or animal food due to contamination with even relatively low levels of certain mycotoxins. In certain developing countries where there is less regulation or monitoring of human and animal exposure to toxins, there are risks of higher human health costs and animal death. Additional losses can be from a number of unseen problems such as reduction in birth rate in certain animals, decline in milk production by dairy cattle and egg production in poultry, loss of... 

Chu, F. S. 1991. Immunoassays for trace chemical analysis Monitoring toxic chemicals in humans, food, and the environment. In "Current Immunochemical Methods for Mycotoxin Analysis" (M. Vanderlaan, L. H. Stanker, B. E. Watkins, and D. W. Roberts, eds.), pp. 140-157. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. 

Summary Primary hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in the world and is prevalent on the continents of Africa and Asia. A number of classical epidemiological studies have determined that the exposure status of people to aflatoxin B1 is an important risk factor in the etiology of liver cancer. However, these studies have only relied upon the criteria of presumptive intake data, rather than information obtained from quantitative analyses of food samples, biological fluids and from people exposed to aflatoxin. Information obtained by monitoring exposed individuals for specific DNA adducts and metabolites will define the pharmacokinetics of aflatoxin B1 in people, thereby facilitating risk assessments. Preliminary data, reported here, support the concept that measurement of the major, rapidly excised AFB-N7-Gua adduct in urine and quantification of the more persistent aflatoxin albumin adduct are appropriate dosimeters for estimating exposure status and possibly risk in individuals consuming this mycotoxin. 

The assessment of dietary risk of exposure to fumonisins is relatively complicated with regard to a variety of individual mycotoxins. In some types of maize products, fumonisins that are not currently monitored may significantly contribute to the toxic effects. Fumonisins cause a number of livestock diseases, such as mycotoxicosis known as Equine LEucoencephaloMalasia (ELEM) in horses or Porcine Pulmonary oEdema (PPE) in pigs. Intoxication by higher doses of mycotoxins can be fatal in both cases. In connection with the possible occurrence of fumonisins in foods, their hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity to humans and carcinogenicity demonstrated... 

In terms of chemical food contamination, mycotoxins undoubtedly represent the most monitored group of pollutants, but many bacterial pathogens that produce diseases similarly have the ability... 

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