ABSTRACT
Food toxins of natural origin cover a wide diversity of macromolecules; generated by plants, algae, fungi, or degraded products of metabolism with destructive effects even at very low concentration/dose or when consumed in sufficient quantities. These toxins have diverse chemical structures and may serve definite purposes in plants or are developed as biochemical protectant against predators, insects, or microbes. Glycoalkaloids, cyanide-generating compounds, enzyme inhibitors and lectins, and mycotoxins are some important examples of natural food toxins. The toxicity of food toxins relies on the level of toxins available as well as susceptibility of a given population. These toxins may lead to acute and chronic health issues whose clinical indications may range from minor gastrointestinal distress, neurological indications, and respiratory paralysis to fatality. Analysis of food toxins requires authentication of analytical techniques for screening, quantification, and identification of contaminants. Undeniably, chromatographic analytical approaches can analyze numerous natural food toxins in a given period of time, in a sensitive and selective manner, yielding toxins concentration accurately. Even though extensively used, these approaches are costly, consume a lot of time, and deliver data following a noteworthy time lapse. Furthermore, samples (food toxins) are damaged by analytical procedures. Thus, alternative approaches/substitutes such as IR spectroscopy are actually progressively advanced to deliver simple and rapid procedures for the detection of food toxins. IR spectroscopy is a non-destructive procedure; employed to authenticate and characterize samples in high throughput. The usefulness of IR spectroscopy has directed its usage in numerous applications which comprises chemistry of soil, cereals, agricultural produce, medicine, and so forth. Since it reviews the interactions between radiation and matter, IR spectroscopy is a suitable tool for carrying out analysis of food toxins in finished foodstuffs. This chapter delivers the advancement and potential prospective of IR spectroscopy as an alternate/substitute to prevailing techniques for the assessment of food toxins.
