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A survey on the occurrence of ochratoxin A (OTA) and sterigmatocystin (STC) in grated cheese products obtained from hard grana-type cheeses was carried out, where 107 grated products were collected in retail outlets and analysed. OTA and STC were found in 48.6% and 94.4% of the samples, in a range from

The occurrence of tenuazonic acid (TeA), alternariol, alternariol monomethyl and tentoxin in tomato-based products was surveyed over the years 2017–2019. A total of 120 samples were collected from retail outlets and tomato-based food producers located in Northern Italy. After extraction and purification through prepacked columns, the mycotoxins were analysed using LC-MS/MS. A widespread contamination of TeA was found in tomato-based products, particularly in concentrated tomato paste. Other Alternaria toxins were not detected. The incidence of TeA was 78.5%, 47.4%, 55.5%, and 76.9% in concentrated tomato paste (maximum value 5955 µg kg−1), tomato sauce, tomato pulp, and ketchup, respectively. The mean level was 243 ± 725 µg kg−1 in concentrated tomato paste and below 30 µg kg−1 in the other tomato products. The contamination varied from year to year. Alternaria spp strains isolated from fresh tomatoes produced mainly TeA. This study provides further Alternaria toxins occurrence data, useful for future risk assessments.

In this study, the possibility to manage maize contaminated with aflatoxins and fumonisins for the production of biogas was considered. This is a priority in the climate change scenario that is expected to increase the occurrence of aflatoxins in maize. The results clearly underline how the anaerobic digestion process used in biogas plants is able to reduce aflatoxin contamination, mainly when highly contaminated maize is used for feeding the biodigestors without affecting the efficiency of methane production. In particular, the higher aflatoxin contamination is, the higher is mycotoxin reduction during biodigestion, with reductions up to 95% in digestate. The co-occurring mycotoxins, fumonisins, were also reduced by around 15%. The vitality of mycotoxin producing fungi was also significantly reduced. Biogas production is therefore suggested as a good alternative use for uncompliant maize.

A survey on the occurrence of acrylamide (AA) in roasted coffee, barley, and potato crisps was carried out using an intra-lab validated liquid chromatography (LC)–MS (mass spectrometry)/MS method. Over the years 2015–2016, 66 samples of coffee, 22 of roasted barley, and 22 of potato crisps were collected from retail outlets in Italy. AA was detected in almost all samples. In roasted coffee, the level exceeded 450 µg kg−1, the limit recommended by the European Commission (EC), in 36.4% of the samples. In roasted barley, mean contamination was slightly lower than in coffee and no sample exceeded the EC limit of 2000 µg kg−1. The AA contamination in potato crisps was remarkable. A percentage of 36.4 (n = 8) showed a value higher than the EC limit of 1000 µg kg−1. Considering the average consumption of coffee and potato crisps by Italian people, AA exposure is significant and should be decreased.

The aim of this study was to investigate in vitro and model the effect of temperature (T) and water activity (aw) conditions on growth and toxin production by some toxigenic fungi signaled in cheese. Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium camemberti, P. citrinum, P. crustosum, P. nalgiovense, P. nordicum, P. roqueforti, P. verrucosum were considered they were grown under different T (0–40 °C) and aw (0.78–0.99) regimes. The highest relative growth occurred around 25 °C; all the fungi were very susceptible to aw and 0.99 was optimal for almost all species (except for A. versicolor, aw opt = 0.96). The highest toxin production occurred between 15 and 25 °C and 0.96–0.99 aw. Therefore, during grana cheese ripening, managed between 15 and 22 °C, ochratoxin A (OTA), penitrem A (PA), roquefortine-C (ROQ-C) and mycophenolic acid (MPA) are apparently at the highest production risk. Bete and logistic function described fungal growth under different T and aw regimes well, respectively. Bete function described also STC, PA, ROQ-C and OTA production as well as function of T. These models would be very useful as starting point to develop a mechanistic model to predict fungal growth and toxin production during cheese ripening and to help advising the most proper setting of environmental factors to minimize the contamination risk.

An innovative chromatographic analysis was developed for the determination of moniliformin (MON). Because of its ionic nature, MON is weakly retained in reversed-phase chromatography and the separation may be tricky. Nevertheless, this technique is normally used either with the formation of ion pairs or employing specific RP columns for polar compounds, or combining anion exchange and hydrophobic interactions. Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) was also used, but a non-negligible peak tailing was observed. Besides its ionic nature, MON is a di-ketone and di-ketones, mainly -di-ketones, can easily form complexes with lanthanide ions. Then, in this work the addition of lanthanide ions to the mobile phase was investigated, aiming at improving peak shape and MON separation. La3+, Tb3+ or Eu3+ aqueous solutions were used as mobile phase and MON was chromatographed using a LC-NH2 column. The probable formation of coordination complexes lanthanide-MON in the HPLC mobile phase allowed to obtain a symmetrical peak shape and a satisfactory chromatographic separation by both mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and UV detection. Finally, a suitable extraction and purification method for MON determination in cereal samples was developed.

The influence of climate change on agricultural systems has been generally accepted as having a considerable impact on food security and safety. It is believed that the occurrence of mycotoxins will be greatly affected by future climate scenarios and this has been confirmed by recent data. Temperature (T) and CO2 increases, variation in rain intensity and distribution, as well as extreme weather events, affect the dominant fungal species in different ways, depending on their ecological needs. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study Aspergillus flavus (Af) and Fusarium verticillioides (Fv) co-occurrence in vitro in order to collect quantitative data on the effect of fungal interaction on growth and mycotoxin production and develop functions for their description. Experimental trials were organized with the cited fungi grown alone or together. They were incubated at different T regimes (10–40°C, step 5°C) for 21 days. Fungal growth was measured weekly, while AFs and FBs were quantified at the end of the incubation period. Temperature and incubation time significantly affected fungal growth both for Af and Fv (p ≤ 0.01), and a significant interaction between T and the presence of one versus both fungi influenced the amount of AFs and FBs produced. Each fungus was affected by the presence of the other fungus; in particular, Af and Fv showed a decrease in colony diameter of 10 and 44%, respectively, when they were grown together, compared to alone. The same influence was not found for mycotoxin production. In fact, the dynamics of toxin production in different temperature regimes followed a comparable trend with fungi grown alone or together, but a significant impact of inoculum × temperature interaction was highlighted. Fungal growth and toxin production in different T regimes were well described, both for AFs and FBs, by a Bete function. These results are the first attempt to model mycotoxigenic fungal co-occurrence under several T regimes; this is essential in or

Based on the EFSA proposal “Survey on sterigmatocystin in food” (GP/EFSA/CONTAM/2013/02), this study provides a survey on the occurrence of this mycotoxin. A total of 1259 samples of cereal grains (429), cereal products (713), beer (53) and nuts (64) were analysed for the presence of sterigmatocystin (STC). Samples were mainly collected at processing plants, storage facilities, wholesale and retail between August 2013 and November 2014, in nine European countries, mostly Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The products originated from 27 European countries and 18 other countries. All samples were analysed by methods based on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.5 µg/kg and the limit of detection (LOD) was in the range 0.05-0.15 µg/kg (0.005-0.01 µg/L for beer). Overall, STC was identified in 10% of the samples; it was not detected in either beer or nut samples. More than 50% of the contaminated samples contained levels between LOD and LOQ; in the other cases, levels were between 0.5-6 µg/kg with one exception (33 µg/kg in oats). In cereal grains, rice and oats seemed the cereals most prone to STC contamination (100% unprocessed rice, 22% oats grains); however the number of rice samples was limited (n=28) and the samples were collected almost exclusively in Italy and Greece. In cereal products, levels were lower than in cereal grains. The highest incidence was in processed rice (21%) and breakfast cereals (19%), while for the other cereal products this was between 5-7%. In the contaminated cereal products, rice and oats were often present as ingredients.

The occurrence of sterigmatocystin (STC) in paddy and processed rice samples produced in Italy was surveyed. After extraction and purification, STC was analysed using HPLC-MS/MS. STC was detected in all paddy rice samples (n = 49), in the range 0.29–15.85 gkg1. As regards processed rice, a widespread contamination was found in brown and parboiled rice. All the brown rice samples were contaminated between 0.12 and 1.32 gkg1; for parboiled rice, the incidence was 90.9% and the maximum level was 1.09 gkg1. The contamination in white rice was significantly lower (p < 0.01). The STC distribution in different rice fractions, obtained by the de-hulling and polishing processes, was evaluated. After de-hulling, the STC percentage remaining in brown rice was in the range 21.2%–30.8%. The polishing process, from brown to white rice, caused another remarkable decrease of contamination; the STC remaining in white rice was 2.2%–8.3% of the amount found in paddy rice.

The extraction of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) from cheese is generally carried out using chlorinated organic solvents. In this study, two innovative methods were developed, based on an enzyme-assisted (EA) extraction using proteolytic enzymes (pepsin or pepsin–pancreatin). After purification through an immunoaffinity column, AFM1 is determined by HPLC–FLD. A comparison between the new EA methods and an established chloroform (CH) method was carried out on 24 cheese samples. The results showed that the extraction efficiency of the EA methods was independent of ripening time of cheese, whereas the CH method was not able to fully recover AFM1 from ripened cheeses. The simpler (pepsin) of the two methods has been adopted by our laboratory for routine analysis of AFM1 in cheese. In comparison with the CH method, the pepsin-HCl (P-HCl) method is simpler, avoiding solvent evaporation, dissolution and partition in a separating funnel; moreover, it gives higher recoveries, comparable LOD and LOQ and more accurate results.

MycoKey, an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, includes a series of “Roundtable Discussions” to gather information on trending research areas in the field of mycotoxicology. This paper includes summaries of the Roundtable Discussions on Chemical Detection and Monitoring of mycotoxins and on the role of genetics and biodiversity in mycotoxin production. Discussions were managed by using the nominal group discussion technique, which generates numerous ideas and provides a ranking for those identified as the most important. Four questions were posed for each research area, as well as two questions that were common to both discussions. Test kits, usually antibody based, were one major focus of the discussions at the Chemical Detection and Monitoring roundtable because of their many favorable features, e.g., cost, speed and ease of use. The second area of focus for this roundtable was multi-mycotoxin detection protocols and the challenges still to be met to enable these protocols to become methods of choice for regulated mycotoxins. For the genetic and biodiversity group, both the depth and the breadth of trending research areas were notable. For some areas, e.g., microbiome studies, the suggested research questions were primarily of a descriptive nature. In other areas, multiple experimental approaches, e.g., transcriptomics, proteomics, RNAi and gene deletions, are needed to understand the regulation of toxin production and mechanisms underlying successful biological controls. Answers to the research questions will provide starting points for developing acceptable prevention and remediation processes. Forging a partnership between scientists and appropriately-placed communications experts was recognized by both groups as an essential step to communicating risks, while retaining overall confidence in the safety of the food supply and the integrity of the food production chain.

Acrylamide (AA) can occur in fried and baked food products which contain reducing sugars and free asparagine. Recently, the European Commission established mitigation measures and benchmark levels for the reduction of AA in food. The content of reducing sugars in raw materials and the temperature and time of the expansion process by frying were considered in this study of the preparation of dough-based potato snacks, mainly destined for children. Final moisture and bulk density were also evaluated. An increase from 0.15 to 1.0% in reducing sugar content, due to the addition of micro-ingredients in the dough, caused a remarkable AA increase of five- to six-fold. During frying at temperatures between 175 and 195°C, AA was produced after only a few seconds; the AA content was affected more by process time than by temperature. The best temperature/time conditions for expansion by frying were 185°C for 8 s.

Since 2003, non-compliant aflatoxin concentrations have been detected in maize produced in Italy. The most successful worldwide experiments in aflatoxin prevention resulted from distribution of atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus to displace aflatoxin-producers during crop development. The displacement results in lower aflatoxin concentrations in harvested grain. The current study evaluated in field performances of two atoxigenic strains of A. flavus endemic to Italy in artificially inoculated maize ears and in naturally contaminated maize. Co-inoculation of atoxigenic strains with aflatoxin producers resulted in highly significant reductions in aflatoxin concentrations (>90%) in both years only with atoxigenic strain A2085. The average percent reduction in aflatoxin B1 concentration in naturally contaminated maize fields was 92.3%, without significant differences in fumonisins between treated and control maize. The vegetative compatibility group of A2085 was the most frequently recovered A. flavus in both treated and control plots (average 61.9% and 53.5% of the A. flavus, respectively). A2085 was therefore selected as an active ingredient for biocontrol products and deposited under provisions of the Budapest Treaty in the Belgian Co-Ordinated Collections of Micro-Organisms (BCCM/MUCL) collection (accession MUCL54911). Further work on development of A2085 as a tool for preventing aflatoxin contamination in maize produced in Italy is ongoing with the commercial product named AF-X1TM.