Chapter 21: Mycotoxins in Food and Feed

Unlike surface mold contamination that consumers can easily identify and discard, mycotoxins remain invisible, persist through heat treatment and processing, and resist standard sterilization procedures, making them particularly hazardous in food systems. Over 200 identified mycotoxins produced by more than 150 fungal species create a complex landscape of contamination risks affecting global food security. The chapter traces the historical significance of ergot alkaloids from Claviceps purpurea, which caused ergotism epidemics across medieval Europe, examining how these compounds constrict blood vessels leading to gangrene and neurological symptoms while simultaneously serving as sources for pharmaceutical compounds including ergotamine and lysergic acid derivatives. The modern mycotoxin era began with the discovery of aflatoxins from Aspergillus flavus following the Turkey X disease outbreak, establishing aflatoxin B1 as one of nature's most potent carcinogens with devastating hepatotoxic effects. The chapter systematically addresses major mycotoxin categories including fumonisins from Fusarium species linked to esophageal malignancies and neurological disease in livestock, trichothecenes such as vomitoxin and T-2 toxin causing hemorrhagic syndromes and immune dysfunction, zearalenone mimicking estrogenic activity and disrupting reproductive systems, and ochratoxin A responsible for nephropathy in swine and endemic kidney disease in humans. Additional toxins including sporidesmin affecting sheep, phomopsins causing lupinosis in grazing animals, patulin contaminating apple products, and tremorgens producing neurological tremors demonstrate the breadth of fungal chemical warfare. The chapter emphasizes that approximately 25 percent of global grain supplies experience annual contamination, necessitating stringent regulatory frameworks with aflatoxin limits below 20 parts per billion and fumonisin restrictions under 4 parts per million. Detection methodologies employ chromatographic techniques, mass spectrometry, and ultraviolet fluorescence analysis, while mitigation strategies encompass temperature control, chemical neutralization, and ammonia treatment, with prevention through proper storage conditions remaining the most reliable intervention approach.