Mycotoxin Reduction in Grain Chains

John F. Leslie, Antonio Logrieco, John F. Leslie, Antonio Logrieco

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780813820835
• eBook ISBN: 9781118832868
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Cereal grain safety from farm to table

Mycotoxin Reduction in Grain Chains examines the ways in which food producers, inspectors, and processors can keep our food supply safe. Providing guidance on identification, eradication, and prevention at each stop on the "grain chain, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone who works with cereal grains. Discussions include breeding and crop management, chemical control, contamination prediction, and more for maize, wheat, sorghum, rice, and other major grains. Relevant and practical in the field, the lab, and on the production floor, this book features critical guidance for every point from farm to table.

CHAPTER 1
An Introduction to the MycoRed Project

Antonio F. Logrieco and Angelo Visconti

Abstract

To comply with the needs of the European Union and to address global strategies for mycotoxin reduction, a 4-year large collaborative project, termed MycoRed (www.mycored.eu), was approved within the European FP7—“Food, Agriculture and Biotechnologies” Work Program. MycoRed's goal is to develop strategic solutions to reduce contamination by mycotoxins of major concern in economically important food and feed chains. Novel methodologies, efficient food handling procedures, and information dissemination and educational strategies are considered in a context of multidisciplinary integration of know-how and technology to reduce global exposure to mycotoxins. In this context, this volume brings together for the first time eminent scientists (many of them involved in the MycoRed project) on subjects relevant to mycotoxin production and accumulation in the cereal and maize food chains and ways that these toxins can be reduced or eliminated in the global food supply.

Keywords: global trade; international research collaboration; mycotoxin contamination reduction; food safety; industry competitiveness; training

Introduction

The main objective of the European Commission in the food sector is to create a knowledge-based bio-economy (KBBE). New models, tools, and methods—developed by science, industry, and other stakeholders—are required to assure the sustainable production of high-quality food and feed. To reach a KBBE, the vision for 2020 of the European Technology Platform (ETP), Food4Life, is the “effective integration of strategically focused, transnational, concerted research in the nutritional, food and consumer sciences and food chain management so as to deliver innovative, novel and improved food products for, and to, national, regional and global markets in line with consumer needs and expectations.”

Protection of human health and the environment are important aspects of a KBBE. Reducing mycotoxin contamination in the worldwide food and feed chains is a major challenge to improve human and animal health. Mycotoxins are responsible for a variety of noxious problems in humans, including the induction of cancer, and digestive, blood, kidney, and nerve problems. One quarter of the world's food crops, including many basic foods, are potentially contaminated by mycotoxin-producing fungi. The mycotoxin problem is particularly important for human health in tropical areas, e.g., Sub-Saharan Africa, where crops are particularly susceptible to contamination with the carcinogenic aflatoxins and fumonisins. Globalization of trade has complicated the way we deal with mycotoxins in that regulatory standards often become bargaining chips in world trade negotiations (FAO, 2004; van Egmond et al., 2007). While developed countries have numerous mycotoxin regulations and a well-developed infrastructure for enforcing food quality standards, people in developing countries are not protected by food quality monitoring or by the enforcement of safe standards within their countries. Food commodities that enter international commerce are expected to comply with CODEX Alimentarius standards. This requirement may indirectly increase the risk of mycotoxin exposure in developing countries because the best quality foods leave the country, while the lower quality food is consumed, often by humans, and not discarded. The consequences of this requirement to comply with the needs of the European Union and its consequences for global strategies for mycotoxin reduction need further consideration.

Due to numerous stringent mycotoxin regulations, particularly in Europe, the export/import agro-food industries must improve handling procedures during storage and processing, and utilize low-cost, user-friendly, multi-analysis detection kits (Leslie et al., 2008; Piñeiro, 2008). One objective of the MycoRed (www.mycored.eu) project is to develop new practical technological solutions that may impact mycotoxin detection and management, e.g., micro-systems for ambient intelligence, new biomarkers, and multi-mycotoxin analyses.

Multidisciplinary integration of know-how and technology is required to address the broad requirements for reducing mycotoxins in agro-food chains. The project is based on the integration of specific technologies in the whole food/feed chain with respect to wheat, maize, grapes, nuts, and dried fruits. The main consumer demands posed in the agro-food sector drive research and technological developments in MycoRed. The need to improve prevention to minimize mycotoxins in products at different critical steps of the food chain, i.e., raw materials, storage, feed supply, food processing, and final products, is addressed by MycoRed through vertical (across food and feed chains) and horizontal (among methodologies and procedures) integration of experiences to develop a set of systems with clear breakthrough solutions to specific mycotoxicological problems. Additionally, dissemination of information and best practice education strategies to enhance the involvement of operators at all levels along the food and feed chains, facilitating participation and cooperation at the European and global levels, commensurate with the interest of the European Union community, is also a MycoRed priority.

MycoRed Objectives

A set of mycotoxin reduction targets of vital importance have been identified by some international food organizations, e.g., FAO, CIMMYT, EFSA, IITA, and SAFE consortium, European Union reports, and relevant food industry representatives (Barug et al., 2006; CAST, 2003; Logrieco, 2001; Logrieco and Visconti, 2004; Visconti and Logrieco, 2005). In this respect, the knowledge and reduction of aflatoxins, trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, T-2 and HT-2 toxins, etc.), zearalenone, fumonisins, and ochratoxin A are the most important issues addressed in the project. Aflatoxin B₁ is a proven carcinogen for humans. It is immunotoxic and causes stunted growth in children and growth retardation in animals. Fusarium toxins, especially fumonisins, are neurotoxic and possible carcinogens; trichothecenes are immunotoxic; and zearalenone is estrogenic. Ochratoxin A is a nephrotoxin, possibly carcinogenic to humans, and associated with Balkan endemic nephropathy. Mixtures of mycotoxins probably have at least an additive, if not synergistic, egregious effects. These toxins are primary sources of both yield losses and increased management costs worldwide. MycoRed has an integrated vision of a reduction system as a horizontal task ensuring dissemination of different technological solutions developed by the research activities in the project.

MycoRed targeted strategic solutions for reducing contamination by the mycotoxins of major concern in economically important selected food and feed chains. The following toxins and commodities have been focused on in the project: trichothecenes, fumonisins, and aflatoxins in wheat/maize-based food and feed chains; ochratoxin A in the grape, wine and wheat chains; and aflatoxins in the nut and dried fruit chain (Table 1.1). Novel methodologies, efficient handling procedures, and information dissemination and educational strategies were considered in a context of a multidisciplinary integration of know-how and technology to reduce mycotoxins worldwide from the field to the market.

Table 1.1 Food/feed chains and relative mycotoxins and fungi studied under the MycoRed program

Plant	Chain	Toxin	Fungal genus
Maize	Food/feed	Fumonisins Aflatoxins	Fusarium Aspergillus
Wheat	Food/feed	Trichothecenes Zearalenone Ochratoxin A	Fusarium Fusarium Penicillium
Grapes—including raisins and sultanas	Food and wine	Ochratoxin A	Aspergillus
Nuts and dried fruits—peanuts, figs, pistachios, and almonds	Food	Aflatoxins	Aspergillus

Wheat and maize, in particular, have major mycotoxin safety concerns worldwide and are being studied up and down their food and feed chains. Research on mycotoxins in wheat has been much more intensive than it has been recently in maize, even though maize is at least as significant toxicologically as wheat. In Europe there generally are no data on the economic costs of mycotoxins. One exception is Hungary, where the direct and indirect losses attributable to a 1998 wheat epidemic were estimated at €100 million. In the United States alone, the mean economic annual costs at the farm gate of cereal crop losses due to aflatoxins, fumonisins, and trichothecenes combined are estimated to be $932 million (CAST, 2003), which dwarfs the USDA budget for research on this problem by some 600×.

The overall objectives of MycoRed are:

• to devel...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titlepage
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1 An Introduction to the MycoRed Project
• Part I The Maize Grain Chain
• Part II The Wheat Grain Chain
• Part III Other Grain Chains
• Index
• End User License Agreement