8th World Mycotoxins Forum 2014
Vienna, Austria
11/11/2014
PROGRAMME
The programme of the symposium is available here.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The World Mycotoxin Forum is the leading international meeting series on mycotoxins where food and feed industry representatives meet with people from universities and governments from around the world. The main objectives of The World Mycotoxin Forum are:
- to provide a unique platform for the food and feed industry, regulatory authorities and science;
- to exchange information and experiences on the various aspects of mycotoxins;
- to review current knowledge related to mycotoxins in food and feed;
- to discuss strategies for the prevention and control of mycotoxin contamination ensuring safety and security of food and feed supply;
- to initiate integrated approaches for the control of mycotoxin contamination along conventional and organic supply chains.
PRESENTATION: "How To Reduce Mycotoxin Risks Through Food Processing? An ILSI Europe Perspective"
Abstract
Dr Michele Suman¹,² and Dr Gerrit Speijers², ¹Barilla Food Research Labs, Parma, Italy; ²GETS on behalf of the ILSI Europe Process-related Compounds and Natural Toxins Task Force, Brussels, Belgium.
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by organisms of the fungi kingdom that significantly affect the quality, safety and yield of important crops for food and feed use worldwide. Recent evidences suggest that some food production processes lead to the reduction of levels of parent mycotoxins in finished products compared to the corresponding raw materials\ingredients.
The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe Process-related Compounds and Natural Toxins Task Force completed in 2013 a project dedicated to give a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on agricultural practices connection with plant metabolites of mycotoxins, also called masked mycotoxins [1].
In order to understand the possibility in mitigating mycotoxins occurrence, improving correspondently the safety of the feed/food commodities, the same ILSI Europe Task Force started recently (spring 2014) a new project devoted to review the state of the art about mycotoxins reduction by decontamination/detoxification treatments or by processing. It starts from the premise that Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) have been already optimised.
In particular, the most promising detoxification and food processing strategies that can be modulated to mitigate the toxicological impact, will be evaluated in detail, providing parallel considerations about technological and organoleptic acceptability and potential impact on nutritional quality of the finished products.
Furthermore, these potential approaches for minimizing consumer exposure will be examined, keeping the contemporaneous aim of not inducing other unfavorable secondary effects in food (either possible transformation of mycotoxins into other compounds with relevant safety implications or adverse changes in nutrient profiles) through appropriate management of the industrial technologies. Consequences for the risk assessment of mycotoxins in food that is relevant for the finished product as consumed will be considered.
Finally, the different problems that could arise depending on the geographical regions will be taken into account, following therefore an international approach, leaving open the door to not only EU legislation and targeting worldwide solutions scientifically available.