Prevention and management of mycotoxins in food and feed

Abstract

The contamination of food and animal feeds with mycotoxins is a worldwide problem, while mycotoxins occur more frequently under tropical conditions as a result of environmental conditions in the field coupled with improper harvesting and bad storage. The FAO has estimated that up to 25% of the world's food crops are significantly contaminated with mycotoxins. The global volume of agricultural products such as maize, groundnuts, copra, palm nuts and oilseed cake, which are high-risk commodities, is about 100 million tonnes - 20 million tonnes of which come from the developing countries (FAO 1996). Several management strategies have been developed to help prevent the growth of mycotoxigenic fungi as well as to decontaminate and/or detoxify mycotoxin contaminated foods and animal feeds (Bata and Lásztity 1999). These strategies include Prevention of mycotoxin contamination at pre-harvest, during harvesting and in the post-harvest stage Decontamination/detoxification of mycotoxins present in food and feed Inhibition of mycotoxin absorption in the gastrointestinal tract © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.