Innovative approaches for the analysis and decontamination of mycotoxins from feed and milk

Abstract

Mycotoxins are secondary toxic metabolites produced by some filamentous fungi. In spite of great efforts to prevent it, contamination of animal feed with mycotoxins still occurs very frequently, causing serious diseases in farm animals. Such small chemicals pose a high challenge to food safety and a serious risk to human and animal health, additionally leading to the agricultural industry’s massive economic losses. They can reach our food chain either directly from plant-based food components contaminated with mycotoxins or indirectly through food-borne contamination. Aside from the concerns about the adverse effects of direct intake of mycotoxin-contaminated foods and feeds, there is also a public health concern regarding the possible ingestion of food products derived from animals, such as beef, milk or eggs containing mycotoxin residues or metabolites. Despite the constant advancement of conventional methods, current trends in science are searching for innovative solutions, thus researchers prioritize the production of detoxification technologies for high-risk resources. Nanotechnology approaches seem a promising, efficient, and low-cost way to minimize mycotoxin’s health effects. This study provides new insights into potential future work that may address the difficulties of using nanotechnology to remove mycotoxins from agricultural products, in general and in the animal husbandry sector in particular.