6 December 2016
Prof. Rudolf Krska, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria)

holistic approach

In a recent publication, Kovalsky and colleagues stressed the urgency to fight mycotoxins: With latest mycotoxin contamination data of globally sampled feed material analysed during the last couple of years, it is clear that “[…] considerably more than the FAO suggested figure of 25% of global agricultural commodities are contaminated with mycotoxins”. In fact, up to 80% of agricultural products are estimated to be contaminated with mycotoxins or other secondary metabolites of fungi. As health risks prevail, uncertainty of mycotoxin occurrence, toxicity of emerging or masked mycotoxins, and the cocktail-effect of multiple mycotoxins in products still pose a major challenge in mycotoxin research. Tackling the mycotoxin issue from various research angles is therefore probably the most promising approach to limit and reduce mycotoxin exposure: Within MyToolBox, a multi-actor approach is pursued to reduce mycotoxins in food and feed, covering the entire food and feed chain including the use of contaminated batches for biofuel production.

For more information see “Co-Occurrence of Regulated, Masked and Emerging Mycotoxins and Secondary Metabolites in Finished Feed and Maize—An Extensive Survey” by Kovalsky et al. (Toxins 2016, 8(12), 363; doi:10.3390/toxins8120363): http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/8/12/363/htm