engleski

Monitoring recommendations for non-regulated mycotoxins - contributions to food safety

Monitoring of mycotoxins is imperative for the purpose of protecting human and animal health concerning daily food intake. Approach to monitoring of mycotoxins is changing, not just because of variety of parent mycotoxins but also regarding to the modified forms of mycotoxins and so-called “emerging mycotoxins”. Modified mycotoxins, often called “masked”, are metabolites of the parent mycotoxin and they are repercussion of plant defence mechanism due to caused fungal infections or as a fungal primer outcome. Sometimes, they can also be formed during food processing, handling and storage. Up to now modified forms have been indentified for zearalenone, ohratoxin A, fumonisins, Alternaria toxins and trichothecenes. The term “emerging mycotoxins”, is not clearly defined but these mycotoxins usually were defined as mycotoxins which are neither routinely determined, nor legislatively regulated. Usually mentioned in this group are ergot alkaloids, enniatins, beauvericin, moniliformin and aflatoxin precursors. Accessible data of modified and emerging mycotoxins toxicity is still insufficient considering the lack of toxicological experiments which can be related to the absence of reliable analytical methods and the fact they are not routinly analyzed. Therefore, the total mycotoxin content of the sample may be underestimated. In order to enhance awareness of these potentially hazardous mycotoxins, monitoring of their presence is essential for ensuring food safety and protection of human health. All recomandations indicate a need for comprehansive study and further research of legaly non-regulated mycotoxins to provide toxicological data and to assist food regulatory agenciesin in setting maximum permited levels for food control purposes.

emerging mycotoxins ; maximum permited levels ; modified mycotoxins

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