AFLATOXIN—RECOGNITION, UNDERSTANDING, AND CONTROL WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON THE ROLE OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Abstract

Aflatoxin, a metabolite of the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, has been considered one of the world's most serious food safety problems since it was first identified in the 1960s following large numbers of turkey deaths in Britain. Imported peanut meal was targeted as the cause, leading to identification of mold hyphae, the causative fungus A. flavus, and isolation and identification of aflatoxins as the causative mycotoxins. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) quickly joined the scientific effort in the 1960s to control aflatoxin and to assure food safety by toxicity testing and developing methodology for identification, quantification, and detoxification of aflatoxin. As National Program Leader for Food Safety at the ARS, I initiated a national aflatoxin research program to provide efficacious, workable preharvest controls to decrease losses and help assure human safety by preventing aflatoxin from occurring in susceptible commodities, peanut, corn, cottonseed, and tree nuts. A series of Aflatoxin Elimination Workshops was established to bring together the ARS scientists, university scientists, and industry representatives in a cooperative effort to control aflatoxin. The first success was methodology to reduce contamination of Arizona cottonseed by applying an atoxigenic strain of A. flavus, AF 36, to outcompete native toxigenic strains. This methodology is being extended to peanuts, corn, and tree nuts. Other lines of investigation include the discovery of natural compounds that prevent aflatoxin biosynthesis; understanding the role of oxidative stress in aflatoxin formation; and the isolation and identification of aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway synthesis and regulatory genes.