 Food safety an regulation

The estimate usually given is that one quarter of the worlds crops are contaminated to some
extent with micotoxins

Micotoxins can enter the food chain in the fields during storage or at later points

Micotoxins problems are exacerbated whenever shipping handling and storage practices and
conducive to mold growth

 Detoxification of mycotoxins

Physical treatment: higher level of aflatoxin degradation was achieved when heated at 200°c for
longer exposure

Under dry conditions, citrinin was decomposed at 170°c whereas inder moist condition it was
detoxified 140°c

Heating ochratoxin A in the presence of NaOH resulted in the detoxification of the toxin

Roasting fumonisin B1 contaminated cornmeal at 218°c for 15 min resulted in almost complete
degradation of the toxin

The presence of ammonia during extrusion of aflatoxin B1 led to higher amount of degradation

 Gas chromatography

The gc-ms method has also been used for analysing multimycotoxins such as patulin zearalenone
and trichothecenes in wheat

Disadvantages: the need for derivation

 Lateral flow devices

Wasused for screening aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A simultaneousyly in chill samples limit of
quantitation of 2 and 10 ug/kg respectively

Deoxynivalenol and zearalenone were detected in wheat samples:levels of 1500 and 100
ug/kg for deoxynivalenol and zearaleone

T2 toxin in wheat at oat

This method is very simple and rapid where the result is obtained within 10 min and offers a
convenient on site screening tool

 Physical treatmeat

Aflatoxins are photosensitive in nature; hence, various radiations such as sunlight, uv light and
gamma rays have been employed for degradation studies

Sunlight was efficiently used for degrading aflatoxin B1 in olive oil

The cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of aflatoxin B1 has been shown to reduce after treatmeat
with uv in aqueous medium
 Chemical treatment

Acids convert aflatoxin B1 into several products such as aflatoxins B2, B2a, D1, rather than
complete degradation

Lactic acid converts aflatoxin B1 into aflatoxin B2 and aflatoxin G1 into aflatoxin G2

Citric acid causes the hydration of aflatoxin B1 to form aflatoxin B2a

 Chemical treatmeat

Bolling aflatoxin B1 contaminatedb corn with NaOH decreased the level of aflatoxin B1 by 93%

Nixtamalization (alkaline cooking of grains) degrade fumonisin:fumonisin-contaminated kernel

corn on nixtamalization resulted in reduced toxicity of fumonisin

 Chemical treatment

Among the many chemicals used for detoxification of mycotoxins,ammonia is the most
efficient and it has been accepted for used by the corn production industry

Ammonia degrades aflatoxin B1 into aflatoxin D1 which has reduced toxicity and mutagenic
potential

Ozone has been used to degrade aflatoxin B1 by more than 90% in animal feed. Ozone-trated
aflatoxins were not toxic and mutagenic

Aflatoxin B2 and G2, fumonisin, ochratoxin, patulin and zearaleonone were also efficiently
degraded by ozone.

 Biological treatment-plant extracts

Various extracts from plants such as:

Piperine from black peppers

Carotenoids from fruits and vegetables:suppress the toxicity and mutagenicity ad aflatoxin B1

The oil of clove and its main component ,eugenol, inhibit Aspergillus growth and aflatoxin B1
production

Whole clove inhibit the growth of A.flavus and P.citrinum and their toxins in culture media and
rice grains

 Detection of mycotoxins
 Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry(lcms)

Eliminates the need for sample derivatization for fluorescent activity

Detects aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, and G2 and ochratoxin. A with a limit of quantification of 1 ug/kg
and 50 ug/kg for deoxynivalenol

 Gas chromatography (gc)

The mobile phase is a carrier gas; usually an inert gas such as helium or nitrogen. The
stationary phase is a microscopic layer of liquid or polymer on an inert solid support(column)