Novel analytical methods to study the fate of mycotoxins during thermal food processing

Abstract

Food processing can lead to a reduction of contaminants, such as mycotoxins. However, for food processing operations where thermal energy is employed, it is often not clear whether a reduction of mycotoxins also results in a mitigation of the toxicological impact. This is often due to the reason that the formed degradation products are not characterized and data on their toxicity is scarce. From the perspective of an analytical chemist, the elucidation of the fate of a contaminant in a complex food matrix is extremely challenging. An overview of the analytical approaches is given here, and the application and limitations are exemplified based on cases that can be found in recent literature. As most studies rely on targeted analysis, it is not clear whether the predetermined set of compounds differs from the degradation products that are actually formed during food processing. Although untargeted analysis allows for the elucidation of the complete spectrum of degradation products, only one such study is available so far. Further pitfalls include insufficient precision, natural contamination with masked forms of mycotoxins and interferences that are caused by the food matrix. One topic that is of paramount importance for both targeted and untargeted approaches is the availability of reference standards to identity and quantity the formed degradation products. Our vision is that more studies need to be published that characterize the formed degradation products, collect data on their toxicity and thereby complete the knowledge about the mycotoxin mitigating effect during food processing.

Awareness of mycotoxins and occurrence of aflatoxins in poultry feeds and feed ingredients in selected regions of Uganda

“…Feed processing methods, specifically thermal treatment is done in case of soybean, but not any other ingredients that are only crushed into smaller particles. The treatment probably influenced the low aflatoxins content in soybean, although the detection method targeted the primary aflatoxins not the degradation products, which may be equally toxic (Stadler et al 2019). Occurrence of aflatoxins in feed ingredients and raw materials even at lower concentrations will result into overall contamination of the compounded feed posing health risk to the animals (Nemati et al 2014).…”

Contamination of Pet Food with Mycobiota and Fusarium Mycotoxins—Focus on Dogs and Cats

“…Recent studies increasingly indicated that high resolution mass spectrometry is a powerful tool in a large scale of mycotoxins screening as well as food and feed comprehensive analyses [35,39]. Castaldo et al examined 89 pet food samples, which then were subjected to a targeted analysis of 28 most common mycotoxins, i.e., Fusarium mycotoxins, aflatoxins and ochratoxin A [35].…”

Mycotoxins: Biotransformation and Bioavailability Assessment Using Caco-2 Cell Monolayer

“…The 54% AOH reduction was reported for treatment at 110 °C for 20 min, whereas no significant effect was found for AME at the same temperature [ 58 ]. Based on Stadler et al [ 59 ], the parent mycotoxin can be structurally modified during food processing, including isomerization, decarboxylation, rearrangements, and the reaction with other small molecules [ 59 ]. In summary, food processing such as brewing, cooking, baking, frying, canning flaking, nixtamalization, and extrusion, in general, reduced concentrations of some mycotoxins but did not eliminate them completely [ 52 , 59 , 60 ].…”