Mycotoxins in Food

Abstract

Microfungi are almost ubiquitous. Fortunately not all produce toxic or otherwise deleterious secondary metabolites, known as mycotoxins.

Some of the mycotoxins, such as the aflatoxins, ochratoxins, sterigmatocystin etc., produced by Aspergilli and Penicillia, have been recognised to present health hazards to animals and man However, long-term hazards connected with the ingestion of foodstuffs contaminated with mycotoxins produced by Fusaria, the soil microorganisms common in the temperate zones, have been hitherto greatly neglected.

Experimental and epidemiologic evidence indicate that of these mycotoxins, the toxic and irritant trichothecenes may contribute to the disorders and cancers of the digestive tract, while the oestrogenic resorcylic acid lactones may be responsible for disorders and tumours of the sex and other target organs. Such disorders predominate in the areas of the world, where the climatic conditions (high rainfall and temperatures fluctuating between 5° and 20°C) are conducive to the production in agricultural products of these metabolites by toxigenic species of Fusarium and certain other microfungi.