Beware of mycotoxins in food

2017-08-16 Source: Health News

      Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nutrition and Food Hygiene Institute

      Do you know what mycotoxins are? How does it get into the body? Do you eat foods containing mycotoxins on the human body? How can we avoid eating mycotoxins in our lives? In order to answer these questions, we first look at the food "mycotoxin".

     Fungal toxin caused by food safety events

     Warm and humid season, the food is easy to mold, the culprit is mold. Fungal toxins are produced when the mold has a toxin gene and the environmental conditions are appropriate. Mold is a fungus, mold produced by the toxins known as mycotoxins. "Aflatoxin" we must not unfamiliar, it is a fungal toxin, is the most toxic of a mycotoxin, which aflatoxin Bl toxicity is 10 times the potassium cyanide, arsenic (arsenic trioxide) 68 times. There are currently more than 400 fungal toxins known, almost all crops can be contaminated. Mycotoxins cause food safety incidents to happen to us. In 1960, in a farm in England, 100,000 turkeys eat Brazil imported mildew peanut powder, have died in a few months, causing a nutrition school "earthquake." Many scientists will study the eyes fixed on the moldy material, and finally in the moldy feed to isolate a heat-resistant aflatoxin. A large number of experimental data confirmed that aflatoxin B1, G1, M1 and so are a strong cause of animal liver cancer material. From 1985 to 1992, the southern provinces of China occurred by the scab, wheat mold caused by the poisoning of humans and animals, is deoxifolia fusaric acid enamel to blame; 1953 Japan's dairy poisoning incident, is the case of penicillin provoke the disaster.

     Toxins that are harmful to the public in our country

     Here to choose a few in our country may pose a greater threat to public health of mycotoxins, and easily contaminated food.

     Aflatoxins are B1, B2, G1, G2, M1 and M2. Long-term consumption of foods containing aflatoxin can cause chronic poisoning, liver cancer. People who are susceptible to aflatoxin B1 contamination are peanuts, soybeans, corn and their products. Aflatoxin M1 is the metabolite of aflatoxin B1 in animals, the main contaminated food is milk and dairy products.

     Deoxygenated fusaric acid enamel can damage the human digestive system and the nervous system, may contaminate the food: corn, wheat, barley.

     Chinās penicillin is a neurotoxin with teratogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. Possible contaminated food is rotten apples and hawthorn.

     Ochratoxin A has nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity, can cause teratogenic, carcinogenic, potentially contaminated food in addition to food, there are coffee beans.

     The toxicity of zearalenone mainly affects the reproductive system and the central nervous system, which may contaminate the food with wheat and maize.

     Mycotoxins enter the body in two ways

     Direct pathways: eating foods that are contaminated with mycotoxins, fruits, fruit juices and other foods.

     Indirect pathways: Feeding animals with mycotoxin-contaminated feed, through the food chain, ultimately endangers human health. For example, ochratoxin can accumulate in animals; aflatoxin B1 is metabolized to aflatoxin M1 in dairy cows and contaminated with milk.

     National standards have strict limits

     Speaking of harm must talk about the dose, that is, we often say how much content. China's mandatory basic standards "food safety national standard of fungal toxins in food" (GB2761), provides people eat food, the greater harm to the human body mycotoxins (aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin M1, Deoxynivalenol, prochromycin, ochratoxin A and zearalenone).

     At the same time, strict requirements of food production and processing to take control measures to make the content of mycotoxins in food to a minimum level. In other words, if you eat foods containing mycotoxins, but the content is lower than the national standard limit value, it is safe.

     How to prevent mildew

     Mycotoxins often penetrate the food inside, invisible, intangible, and generally high temperature, fried, fried, cooked, can not be removed. So to prevent mycotoxin harm first to prevent mildew, specifically the following practices:

     1. In the regular food market to buy fresh, shelf life of food, to avoid the purchase of long-term storage of food. 2. Food storage using vacuum or nitrogen and other methods, because the mold is like oxygen microorganisms, in anaerobic conditions almost can not grow. 3. Try to buy small packages of food. 4. Food storage should pay attention to ventilation, because mold like warm, humid environment, ventilation can make food dry, lower food temperature, to prevent the growth of mold and produce poison.