An Overview of Mycotoxin Contamination of Foods and Feeds
Received Date: Sep 21, 2017 / Accepted Date: Oct 09, 2017 / Published Date: Oct 15, 2017
Abstract
Mycotoxins contamination of foods and feeds remain a great challenge to food safety and of public health and economic significance. Mycotoxins occur in various foodstuffs, from raw agricultural commodities to processed foods with varying impacts on food processing. The major group of mycotoxins that contaminate foods and feeds include aflatoxins, fumonisins and patulin. Several studies conducted to reveal the metabolism of mycotoxins in the body are reviewed. Health implications of mycotoxins upon consumption of adequate doses are diverse. They include subacute mycotoxicosis, immune suppression, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, morbidity and mortality in animals and humans as well as interaction with nutrient assimilation. Mycotoxicity of foods have tremendous effect on international trade, resulting in huge losses. There are regulations, though not in all countries, aimed at preventing and controlling Mycotoxins which operate only on industrially processed foods and those meant for exports but not locally processed ones. A number of strategies for preventing mycotoxins have been proposed but the awareness for implementation is very low. The use of media to create awareness is a viable option.
Keywords: Food; Feeds; Mycotoxins; Contamination; Mycotoxicity; Mycotoxin metabolism; Prevention
Citation: Ukwuru MU, Ohaegbu CG, Muritala A (2018) An Overview of Mycotoxin Contamination of Foods and Feeds. J Biochem Microb Toxicol 1: 101.
Copyright: © 2018 Ukwuru MU, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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