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Welcome to the page about Mycotoxins in food of Engormix; a source of knowledge on Mycotoxins in food.
Mycotoxins such as Aflatoxins, Ochratoxin A and Fumonisins are health hazards that contaminate a wide variety of crops. Human and animal health can be at risk due to mycotoxin contamination. In order to reduce the risk associated with mycotoxin contamination, regulations and laws are enforced by the respective authorities. Public health matters are only one aspect of this subject. How do regulations that are different from one country to the next influence the worldwide trade of...
Policy makers, scientists and other key players in the food sector are meeting in Accra to deliberate on how to make grains and legumes safe for consumption and to reduce the incidence of disease and death associated with food items.
The five-day international conference, being attended by 120 experts from 26 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, would focus on how to reduce mycotoxins, or chemicals produced by fungi on grains and legumes responsible for various health...
Feed and oil millers, quality control managers of food products even ordinary farmers will have the rare opportunity to learn the impact of Mycotoxin on their farm produce.
Mycotoxin is a toxin which comes from molds on fungi which causes health problems in humans and animals.
Aflatoxins is considered by many to be the most potent naturally occurring carcenogen known. Aflatoxin is a by-product of mold growth in a wide range of commodities.
Two molds that are major producers of...
Research and Markets has announced the addition of Mycotoxins in Food: Detection and Control to their offering.
Mycotoxins, toxic compounds produced by fungi, pose a significant contamination risk in both animal feed and foods for human consumption. With its distinguished editors and international team of contributors, "Mycotoxins in Food" summarizes the wealth of recent research on how to assess the risks from mycotoxins, detect particular mycotoxins and control them at differing stages in...
In a week that has seen silagemaking get underway in earnest across Northern Ireland, the threat posed by Mycotoxins to the local dairy industry has been highlighted in a very clear cut and meaningful way.
Mycotoxins are poisons produced by moulds and fungi in silages. Recent science developments have meant that these 'metabolites', which only cause problems at extremely low contamination rates, can now be detected.
The mycotoxins present in silages are a relatively newlydiscovered group...
Miscarriages and infants born with neural tube defects are just two of the possible risks for pregnant women who consume corn that has been contaminated by the mycotoxin fumonisin produced by species of Fusarium which cause Fusarium ear and kernel rot of corn. Women who take vitamins containing folic acid when they are pregnant are more protected from the effects, but women in many countries may not be.
"In the United States, food grade corn is tested at the grain elevators for mycotoxins,...
UK food agency finds high levels of the mycotoxins aflatoxin and ochratoxin A in the spice supply chain.
Prompted by the discovery of high levels of potential carcinogenic aflatoxins in its popular paprika spice, Hungary banned sales of the ingredient in October last year.
Spurred on by the Hungarian events, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned a survey to investigate possible contamination of paprika, chilli powder and cayenne pepper in UK spice supplies.
Aflatoxins are...
Minister for Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, has revealed that international apprehension has began on Aflatoxin contamination, which has been discovered to pose major health hazards to human and animal.
Lambo made this known yesterday at the regional workshop on Mycotoxin Contamination of Agricultural Commodities and Processed food, organised by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), in collaboration with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He...
Illegal red colour in palm oils, salmonella in tortillas and listeria in smoked salmon all featured on the EU’s food-linked risk alert system at the end of the year.
The year finished as it started, with foods in various European markets contaminated by the illegal Sudan I and IV colours, and aflatoxins in pistachios in shells.
In place since 1979 the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) provides national authorities with a tool to swap information on national measures taken to...
Food safety reaffirmed with infant foods in the UK strapped into the legal limits for fungal contamination, finds a recent survey from the UK’s food watchdog.
The Food Standards Agency has just completed tests on a round-up of different foods for babies and children in the run-up to EU talks to set limits of mycotoxins in these foods. None fell over the legal limits.
“Overall, the levels of mycotoxins found were very low – less than 10 per cent of the samples tested had a detectable...
VICAM, a world leader in agricultural biotechnology and bioseparations, felt a duty to alert all sectors (industry, government, NGO's) to the important European Union decision setting a maximum level of ochratoxin A (OTA) in coffee. EU officials agreed on October 13, 2004 that the maximum level of OTA in roasted and ground coffee is 5.0 µg/kg; soluble coffee maximum level of OTA is 10.0 µg/kg. The new regulations take effect on January 1, 2005 placing greater pressure on the coffee industry to...
Starving families in Kilifi have been warned against eating maize collected from dumps.
Speaking yesterday, Coast medical officer Anderson Kahindi said the maize was contaminated with the deadly aflatoxin mould.
He said: "Aflatoxin kills. I am warning anybody who comes across any food, including maize that has aflatoxin not to consume it, as they will be endangering their lives."
On Wednesday, famine-stricken families carted away portions of the grains, partly-destroyed, from the...
Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives says cool summer temperatures have helped keep fusarium infection levels low in the province's cereal crops this year.
Fusarium is a fungal infection that affects several crops, including cereal grains. Fusarium graminearum is of particular concern because it produces a mycotoxin which, when fed to livestock, especially swine, reduces performance.
Provincial Plant Pathologist David Kaminski says fusarium levels have been low in all cereal...
Recently, areas of North Dakota, including Sargent, Ransom and Dickey counties, have suffered hail damage to corn that hadn't reached maturity. The kernels were significantly damaged, leading to mold growth, according to Michelle Mostrom, North Dakota State University veterinary toxicologist.
Some samples sent to the NDSU Veterinary Diagnostic Lab have tested high for mycotoxins, which are toxins produced by fungus. The fungal growth resulted from hail damage coupled with this year's...
Europe’s watchdog concludes that human exposure to the potentially harmful contaminant zearalenone in the food chain is ‘expected to be low’.
Following an investigation at the request of the European Commission, the scientific panel on contaminants in the food chain (CONTAM) at the European Food Safety Authority has issued an opinion on human exposure to this mycotoxin.
“Due to the rapid biotransformation and excretion of zearalenone in animals, secondary human exposure resulting from...
The fungus that has killed over 100 people in Kitui, Machakos and Makueni districts might be just the tip of the iceberg as far as aflatoxin contamination is concerned.
Even those who buy only from exclusive supermarkets are not spared, according to research findings by Dr George Siboe, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Botany, University of Nairobi .
Dr Siboe has isolated aflatoxins, among other mycotoxins, from popular brands of maize flour currently in the Kenyan market.
In a...
Experts and Officials From 40 Countries Meet in Malaysia to Develop Integrated Approaches to Safe Food Production and Distribution.
Food-borne diseases pose a serious threat to densely populated areas of Asia and the Pacific, two UN
agencies said today. “So far, food contamination incidents and food-borne disease outbreaks in the region have been relatively isolated, but the potential danger is just round the corner. Already an estimated one in three people worldwide suffer annually from a...
Dear Users, This is an interesting forum from our Spanish community, generated by Marco Castro Calderón from Costa Rica: Dear friends, Which would be the allowed moisture content in yellow corn? Which is its effect on increasing Aflatoxins? What are the critical values which are high in aflatoxin content? And what are acceptable levels of aflatoxin for food animal production in general?? Marco ...