What are mycotoxins and why does Food MYCOTOXIN TESTING MATTER?
Any business that sells food or animal feed understands the importance of monitoring quality to ensure compliance with safety standards.
Of particular concern is a class of organic toxic compounds known as mycotoxins.
But what are mycotoxins? And what is their potential health impact?
That’s why mycotoxins testing is important.
Naturally occurring, invisible to the naked eye, and capable of causing cancer: mycotoxins are one of the most underappreciated hazards in the food supply chain. Here's what every food producer needs to know.
What are mycotoxins?
Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain moulds.
They’re naturally occurring, and capable of contaminating crops, food, and animal feed.
As the name suggests, these compounds are poisonous to humans and animals, and can cause adverse health effects.
Exposure to mycotoxins can occur through skin contact, inhalation or – as is most likely with food – ingestion.
Mycotoxins often survive food processing, so it cannot be assumed that they’ll be destroyed before reaching the end consumer.
They can also pass through the food chain, meaning that even if a person consumes no food with direct mycotoxin contamination, they can still be affected by products derived from animals that have consumed the toxins.
For example, dairy cows that consume mycotoxins can pass the compounds on in their milk.
Similarly, poultry which have ingested mycotoxins can pass the toxic compounds to their eggs, which then pose a health risk to the consumer.
For that reason, mycotoxins testing with modern, proven equipment should be a cornerstone of robust quality control.
How do mycotoxins contaminate food and feed?
Since moulds can thrive on many different organic food sources, mycotoxins can also exist in these foods.
These include:
· Grains and seeds such as barley, wheat, rice and sunflower seeds
· Nuts such as peanuts, almonds and walnuts
· Dried fruits including raisins, figs and sultanas
· Spices like turmeric, coriander and black pepper
· Coffee beans
Fruit juices
Mycotoxins can also exist in foods reserved for livestock like silage and hay.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed international standards and codes of practices for dealing with threats to human health from mycotoxins.
WHO explains: ‘Mould does not usually grow in properly dried and stored foods, so efficient drying of commodities and maintenance of the dry state or proper storage is an effective measure against mould growth and the production of mycotoxins.’
Even with strong preventative measures, as mycotoxins are not always detectable visually, mycotoxins testing is paramount to ensuring that food products entering the supply chain do not pose a risk to human health.
Health risks associated with mycotoxins
What are mycotoxins’ main risks from a health perspective?
In a previously published article titled ‘Everything you need to know about mycotoxins’, we explain:
“Not all mycotoxins affect the body in the same way and to the same level of severity, and hundreds of types have been identified thus far. Not every mycotoxin is unique to the fungus that produces it, and several different species of fungi may produce the same mycotoxin.”
Exposure to mycotoxins can be described as either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic.’
Acute poisoning symptoms occur in a short space of time and be severe, suggesting a high concentration of mycotoxins ingested in a short space of time.
Chronic exposure suggests a lower amount of contact with mycotoxins over a longer period, which can present much more danger than the strong, one-off effects of acute exposure including damage to organs, cancer and immune deficiencies.
Which foods are most at risk?
Moulds can colonise a wide range of organic sources, often remaining even after visible mould is removed. High-risk categories include:
How do mycotoxins affect human health?
Effects depend on the specific toxin and the duration of exposure. Unlike acute poisoning, chronic low-level exposure is often the greater regulatory and health concern.
| Toxin | Primary Source | Known Effects | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aflatoxins | Aspergillus (Grains/Nuts) | Liver damage, DNA damage, Cancer | Severe |
| Ochratoxin A | Cereals | Kidney toxicity, Probable carcinogen | High |
| Fusarium | Cereals | Hormonal & Immune disruption | High |
| Patulin | Apples & Fruit | Nausea, vomiting | Moderate |
High concentrations over a short period. Results in immediate symptoms like nausea or liver stress.
Low-level consumption over months/years. Linked to organ damage and immune dysfunction.
Why mycotoxins testing is important
Given the significant risks to human health from mycotoxins, it’s imperative that mycotoxins testing be conducted to ensure contaminants do not enter the supply chain.
The Food Standards Agency UK, requires businesses to ‘ensure the food they place in the market is safe and places an onus on processors to identify critical control points and carry out quality controls on their products before they are put on sale to ensure that their products meet legal requirements.’
Mycotoxins testing is an important aspect of compliance for businesses around food safety requirements.
The product decisions based on those results helps to ensure that food products are safe for human health.
Mycotoxins testing also helps to protect a food producer’s business reputation and legal standing, with timely monitoring to ensure their production is safe and compliant,
Food health safety requires producers to assess what are mycotoxins’ potential entry points to the supply chain.
That’s why farmers are advised to conduct mycotoxins testing on their harvests.
This is important for animal feed as well as those intended for human diets.
As previously established, mycotoxins are stable compounds that can pass through animal products like meat and milk, so ingestion doesn’t stop with the animals themselves.
The toxicity can also be transmitted from a mother ingesting a product contaminated by mycotoxins through her breast milk to an infant, which is of considerable concern given the potential health dangers.
Mycotoxins testing of cereals prior to food production is also an important safety measure to keep mycotoxins out of the supply chain and ensure food health safety for your business’ products.
The Food Standards Agency has developed codes of practice surrounding mycotoxins and lessening their presence in British food production.
Currently, English, and Welsh law uses retained EU regulations to set the limits of aflatoxin, ochratoxin A, patulin, and fusarium presence.
These regulations set their maximum levels (ML).
Other regulations set by the EU and retained in UK law outline how to sample and analyse food batches when checking for mycotoxins.
The regulations on ML for mycotoxins apply to imports as well as domestic production, with certain foods from certain countries of origin needing documentation to further evidence compliance.
Anybody convicted of an offence under the Contaminants in Food (England) Regulations 2010 is subject to unlimited fines.
How mycotoxin testing works
Fortunately, mycotoxins testing is simple using modern and efficient equipment.
At Calibre Control we supply the Charm EZ-M Mycotoxin Reader, which uses lateral flow tests to quickly detect the presence of mould-born toxins in grain samples.
The device incubates the test strips until they’re ready to analyse, and the results are easy to export and save onto a removable SD card.
The reader tests for some of the most common toxins, including:
· Aflatoxins and ochratoxin
· DON
· Zearalenone
· T2/HT2
· Fumonisin
Charm EZ-M reads the colour of each respective test strip type to ensure correct calibration.
The strips themselves use the latest methods to safely test for mycotoxins without the use of harsh chemicals.
Instead, a WET (water extraction technology) test allows toxins to be tested simply using water.
With results available in minutes, Charm EZ-M allows on-site testing to be carried out quickly, safely and repeatably.
The speed and accuracy of this test mean it can be easily incorporated into quality assurance processes, and it can be used for farm testing or in a production setting.
How Calibre control can assist your legal compliance with mycotoxins testing
Testing for mycotoxins helps protect food quality, ensures compliance with food safety regulations and, most importantly, prevents contaminated products from entering the food chain.
Why Mycotoxin testing is non-negotiable
Because mycotoxins are naturally occurring, they cannot be entirely eliminated. Warm, humid conditions will always create opportunities for fungal growth—a reality being accelerated by Climate Change. Warmer conditions are expanding the geographic range where these fungi thrive.
Modern testing: Fast and on-site
Mycotoxin tests no longer requires a laboratory turnaround of days. Devices like the Charm EZ-M Mycotoxin Reader use lateral flow technology to deliver results in minutes. This allows for immediate "accept or reject" decisions at the grain elevator or factory gate, before contamination spreads through the facility.
Protect Your Supply Chain
Calibre Control provides expert guidance and state-of-the-art equipment for mycotoxin detection in food.
Contact Calibre Control