Fumonisins in Food and Feed: Their Detection and Management Strategies

Contamination by fumonisins in agricultural crops and food-related products is affected by agro-climatic conditions. Cereals are the most often contaminated food categories. The fumonisin levels in popcorn or sweet corn, milk, meat, and eggs are generally low, while those in corn meal, bran, flour, grits, distiller grains, gluten, milling fractions, and baking mixes are quite high. Fumonisin dietary intake can result in a variety of negative consequences in agricultural and laboratory animals. From 1980-95, fumonisins were detected by thin layer chromatography on silica plates. After spraying the plate with p-anisaldehyde, followed by heating, the fumonisins develop as light to dark purple dots. Some chemical and physical methods for fumonisin reduction have been marketed entailing solvent extraction, sorting and flotation, detoxification by chemical alkalization. Mycotoxin adsorption methods have been adopted by the use of natural clay as adsorbent media in the food processing sector, resulting in the detoxification of food.