Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Emerging, modified and masked mycotoxins in foods - Current risk assessments

2^nd International Conference on Food Safety and Regulatory Measures

June 06-08, 2016 London,UK

Michael Rychlik

Technical University of Munich, Germany

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Food Process Technol

Abstract:

According to WHO estimation, about 25% of agricultural commodities are contaminated with mycotoxins world-wide. In cereals, the most common fungal genus involved is Fusarium. Major Fusarium toxins such as deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and fumonisins are regulated by EU legislation. Analytical food chemistry has developed accurate LC-MS/MS methods for controlling these contaminants. However, during the last years so called �??modified�?� or �??emerging�?� mycotoxins have been discovered, which are either plant metabolites of the fungal toxins or produced by other ubiquitous fungi such as Alternaria species, respectively. Targeted approaches have been developed to accurately quantitate �??emerging�?� and �??modified�?� mycotoxins along with multi-analyte approaches based on stable isotope dilution assays (SIDAs) for efficient mycotoxin control. In this regard, most Fusarium toxins and major modifications were included and detected in cereal products. Besides, major Alternaria toxins were analyzed and risk assessments along with management actions for infant foods were initiated. Moreover, non-targeted approaches were initiated to screen for other fungal metabolites. Despite the current analytical developments in metabolomics, mycotoxin analysis still is challenging with regard to accurate quantitation and newly identified compounds. However, risk assessment and preventing hazards for the consumers requires data on exposure and toxicological properties, which are still lacking for many substances.

Biography :

Michael Rychlik is the Head of the Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, Germany (TUM). He graduated in Food Chemistry at the University of Kaiserslautern in 1988. His PhD studies on the flavour of bread were completed in 1996 and he was appointed as Professor at the TUM in 2010. His group has been working for 15 years in the field of developing analytical methods for bioactive food components, in particular for vitamins, mycotoxins, odourants and lipids. For these compounds, he developed stable isotope dilution assays that reveal superior accuracy.

Email: michael.rychlik@tum.de