ABSTRACT
Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites that can contaminate foods and feeds, and exhibit toxic effects in higher organisms (Sharma and Salunkhe 1991) that consume the contaminated commodities. The regulatory guidelines and advisory limits issued by the United States Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) on some contaminated commodities can facilitate severe economic losses to the growers. Therefore, mycotoxin contamination of foods and feeds is a serious food safety problem affecting the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture, both domestically and worldwide. Mycotoxins that significantly impact agriculture include aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, trichothecenes (in particular deoxynivalenol or DON) produced by Fusarium spp., ochratoxins produced by A. ochraceus and Penicillium viridicatum, and fumonisins produced by F. verticillioides (synonym, moniliforme, as used in some literature cited in the present article) (Brown et al. 1998). Cyclopiazonic acid produced by A. flavus, can also be included on this list of significant mycotoxins. Aflatoxins, potent liver toxins, and carcinogens comprise the most widely studied mycotoxins (CAST 1979; Diener et al. 1987; Payne 1998), because of established results in their ability to induce animal diseases, particularly liver cancer in humans [reviewed in Eaton and Groopman (1994)]. However, other mycotoxins such as DON, are of particular concern for the brewing industry which has cutoff levels as low as 0.5 ppm for DON in barley used in malting (Robens 2001). In addition, recognizing the potential for fumonisins to cause animal or human health problems (Marasas 1996), the FDA has now announced the availability of a final guidance document entitled “Guidance for Industry: Fumonisin Levels in Human Foods and Animal Feeds” in the November 9, 2001, Federal Registry. More than 50 countries have established or proposed regulations for controlling aflatoxins in foods and feeds, and at least 15 countries have regulations for levels of other mycotoxins (Haumann 1995). The FDA has set limits of 20 ppb, total aflatoxins, for interstate commerce of food and feed and 0.05 ppb of aflatoxin M1 for sale of milk. Because of both food and feed safety concerns and the establishment of regulatory limits on DON and aflatoxins, it is estimated that over $1.5 billion in crop losses occur annually due to contamination of
corn, cottonseed, peanut, and treenuts with aflatoxins and of wheat and barley with DON (Robens 2001).
