Analytical Methods for Mycotoxin Analysis

Dear Colleagues,

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi of different species, mainly Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, and Alternaria, which can contaminate food and feed with toxic effects for humans and animals. They represent the most important class of chemical hazards recorded in the European Rapid Alert System on Feed and Food (RASFF). In 2017, 43.4% of the alerts concerning a potential threat to human health from chemical contaminants in food products, mainly cereals and nuts, were due to mycotoxins.

Regulations around the world have established maximum levels for different mycotoxins in foodstuffs, including aflatoxins B₁, B₂, G₁, G₂, and M₁, ochratoxin A, fumonisins B₁ and B₂, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, HT-2 and T-2 toxins, patulin, citrinin, and ergot alkaloids. In addition to these “known and legislatively regulated” mycotoxins, there are other “emerging mycotoxins” that have been considered as relevant since evidence of their incidence in food and feed is rapidly increasing. This group includes Alternaria toxins, such as alternariol, alternariol monomethyl ether, and tenuazonic acid, Aspergillus toxins, such as sterigmatocystin, Fusarium toxins, such as moniliformin, enniantins and beauvericin, phomopsins, and others.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop analytical methods for an accurate determination of mycotoxins in different food matrices and feeds, achieving both the requirement of assuring food safety along the production chain and the development of advanced instrumental techniques to identify new emerging and masked mycotoxins. To obtain a continuous monitoring of these hazardous compounds in raw materials and final products along the production food chain, rapid, cheap, and easy-to-operate analytical methods are generally used; on the other hand, innovative approaches and advanced instrumental techniques, such as GC-MS, LC-MS/MS and HRMS, are required to develop multi-mycotoxin methods and to identify and quantify emerging, masked, and novel mycotoxins. Moreover, the high variety of samples involved in mycotoxin determination requires the development of appropriate extraction and clean-up techniques.

I hope that this Special Issue of Molecules will contribute to the advancement of analytical methods helpful in evaluating mycotoxin occurrence and diffusion in food and feed.

Prof. Dr. Terenzio Bertuzzi
Dr. Chiara Lanzanova
Dr. Sabrina Locatelli
Guest Editor

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