Advanced analytical methods for mycotoxin detection: priorities and critical issues

Scientific fields are always changing, and it is important to determine the directions in which they are heading as plans are made for future research activities and research results transition to applications and policies. The MycoKey project, an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, includes a series of "Roundtable Discussions" to gather information from leading researchers inside and outside the project on directions in which the field of mycotoxicology is trending. This presentation includes a summary of the roundtable discussion on priorities and critical issues in chemical detection and monitoring of mycotoxins. The goal was to identify key elements that could impact when and how methods are used to identify mycotoxins and to increase food safety. The discussion was managed by using the Nominal Group discussion Technique (NGT). The NGT provides for equal input from all participants and is well-known as a process for generating a large number of ideas, while also providing a mechanism for ranking them. The discussion was focused on four following key questions: oto identify scientific and technological innovations which hold promise for development/improvement in the future (question 1); oto identify and prioritize critical elements making methods effectively applicable in -industry for autocontrol and HACCP (question 2), -developing countries with limited analytical capabilities (question 3), -official control with particular reference to multi-mycotoxin methods (question 4). The rankings and the total list of responses provided a rich and detailed context from which particular ideas and general trends could be extracted. Test kits, usually antibody based, were one major focus of the discussions because of their many favorable features, e.g., cost, speed, and ease of use. Most important was considered the degree to which antibody-based diagnostics have become an acceptable standard in many practical applications. Much of the discussion was on how to improve these kits and to speed the detection of mycotoxins in locations where access to a well-equipped analytical chemistry laboratory is neither timely nor cost-effective. The second area of focus for this discussion was multi-mycotoxin detection protocols and challenges remaining before these protocols become methods of choice for regulated mycotoxins. This second point mirrors the first, through the increasing importance of technically highly sophisticated multi-mycotoxin detection protocols. These protocols need more standardization and cross-laboratory validation, but are the future for many official regulatory controls, especially as the number of toxins that are regulated increases. Multi-mycotoxin assays are being developed at a large number of locations and international inter-laboratory validation and comparability of results are needed to establish credibility of results across both scientific and regulatory boundaries. Common critical factors for analyses in academic, industrial, and governmental laboratories and developing countries were speed, expense, accuracy/reliability, data management, and, particularly in developing countries, operator training. Finally, forging a partnership between scientists and well-placed communications experts was recognized 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. This work was supported by H2020- MycoKey-(E.U.3.2-678781)