Special Issue "Mycotoxin Contamination and Food Safety"

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Mycotoxins".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Angelina Lopes Simoes Pena
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
REQUIMTE-LAQV, Laboratório de Bromatologia e Farmacognosia, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbra, Polo III, Azinhaga de Stª Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: health surveillance monitoring; safety assessment of food additives; foodstuff contamination with veterinary drugs and mycotoxins; population exposure estimation through human biomonitoring studies; pharmaceutical monitoring in environmental samples; environmental risk assessment evaluation
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Carlos Augusto Fernandes De Oliveira
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Food Engeneering, Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos, Universidade de São Paulo. Av. Duque de Caxias Norte, 225, CEP 13635-900, Pirassununga, SP, Brazil
Interests: analysis of mycotoxins in foods and feed; human and animal biomonitoring studies; risk assessment evaluations of dietary mycotoxins; molecular identification and biofilm formation of pathogenic microorganisms
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Sofia Cancela Duarte
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. REQUIMTE-LAQV, Laboratório de Bromatologia e Farmacognosia, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbra, Polo III, Azinhaga de Stª Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
2. Centro de Investigação Vasco da Gama, Escola Universitária Vasco da Gama (EUVG), Av. José R. Sousa Fernandes 197, Campus Universitário de Lordemão, 3020-210, Coimbra, Portugal.
Interests: analysis of the quality and safety of food and feed; human risk assessment
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It has been 60 years since the emblematic episode of the death of thousands of animals that led to the discovery of the aflatoxins, one of the most toxic fungal secondary metabolites known as mycotoxins. In this period, a remarkable collaborative and multidisciplinary scientific effort led to the development of mycotoxicology and contributed to raise awareness of the importance of mycotoxins, beyond animal health. Indeed, the burden of these fungal toxins on public health is of particular concern given the noticeable and wide range of toxic effects in humans, typically following a chronic exposure that make the diagnosis and establishment of causality difficult. Frequently at the top of the ranking of occurrence and notification worldwide, in both the food and feed chain, these contaminants still lack global harmonization on the regulations, aiming at reducing the human exposure. Moreover, mycotoxins are also recognized as one of the foodborne hazards more susceptible to increase with climate change. Given the link between animal, human, and environmental health, it is agreed that these contaminants continue to require a multisector and transdisciplinary joint effort, namely through the One Health approach.

Thus, this Special Issue addresses the challenge of mycotoxin contamination to food safety and welcomes studies that report mycotoxin occurrence data in the food chain; perform human exposure assessments through food consumption data and human biomonitoring including risk evaluation of mycotoxins, with special attention devoted to vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly; and describe new analytical methodologies to determine mycotoxins in food matrices. Critical reviews on the current and future challenges posed by mycotoxins, including emerging and masked mycotoxins, their risk for consumers, impacts on the agri-food industry and on the global food security and global trade, as well as regulatory issues are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Angelina Lopes Simoes Pena
Prof. Dr. Carlos Augusto Fernandes De Oliveira
Prof. Dr. Sofia Cancela Duarte
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biomonitoring
  • detection
  • emerging mycotoxins
  • exposure
  • food safety
  • food security
  • masked mycotoxins
  • monitoring
  • mycotoxins
  • regulation
  • risk assessment

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Communication
Mycotoxin Co-Occurrence in Milks and Exposure Estimation: A Pilot Study in São Paulo, Brazil
Toxins 2021, 13(8), 507; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins13080507 - 21 Jul 2021
Viewed by 559
Abstract
The aim of this study was to conduct a first evaluation on the co-occurrence of aflatoxins (AF) M1, B1, B2, G1 and G2; fumonisins (F) B1 and B2; deoxynivalenol (DON); de-epoxydeoxinivalenol [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to conduct a first evaluation on the co-occurrence of aflatoxins (AF) M1, B1, B2, G1 and G2; fumonisins (F) B1 and B2; deoxynivalenol (DON); de-epoxydeoxinivalenol (DOM-1); ochratoxin A (OTA); zearalenone (ZEN); α-zearalenol (α-ZEL); and β-zearalenol (β-ZEL) in 68 samples of fluid milk consumed in Pirassununga, São Paulo, Brazil. The probable daily intake (PDI) was also calculated for each mycotoxin evaluated. Mycotoxins were determined by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Sixty-two (91.2%) samples contained at least one type of mycotoxin. AFM1 was found in 6 samples (8.8%), and none of them presented concentrations above the Brazilian maximum permitted level in milk (500 ng/L). Low levels of non-regulated mycotoxins DOM-1, OTA, FB1, FB2, α-ZEL and β-ZEL were found in 6 (8.8%), 17 (25%), 10 (14.7%), 3 (4.4%), 39 (57.4%) and 28 (41.2%) samples of milk, respectively. None of the PDIs calculated for the quantified mycotoxins were above recommended values, indicating low exposure through milk consumption in the area studied. However, 21 samples (30.9%) contained 2–4 types of mycotoxins, which warrants concern about the potential adverse effects of mycotoxin mixtures in milks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Contamination and Food Safety)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Communication
Dietary Supplements Based on Red Yeast Rice—A Source of Citrinin?
Toxins 2021, 13(7), 497; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins13070497 - 17 Jul 2021
Viewed by 734
Abstract
Citrinin (CIT) is secondary metabolite of filamentous molds. This mycotoxin has nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, embryocidal, and fetotoxic properties. It is also produced by several species of the three genera Penicillium spp., Aspergillus spp., and Monascus spp., which are used to make red yeast rice [...] Read more.
Citrinin (CIT) is secondary metabolite of filamentous molds. This mycotoxin has nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, embryocidal, and fetotoxic properties. It is also produced by several species of the three genera Penicillium spp., Aspergillus spp., and Monascus spp., which are used to make red yeast rice (RYR). The material for this study consisted of 15 dietary supplements containing an extract of fermented red rice, available on the Polish market. Samples were extracted using a MeOH–H2O mixture, cleaned-up with an immunoaffinity CitriTest HPLC column, and quantified by HPLC–FLD. None of the analyzed samples contained CIT above the established limit of detection (LOD). Studies on the presence of toxic metabolites in red yeast rice show the importance of regulating this product and of clear information on the label regarding the standardized amounts of monacolin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Contamination and Food Safety)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop