Abstract
Mycotoxins, the toxic secondary metabolites of mould species, are a growing global concern, rendering almost 25% of all food produced unfit for human or animal consumption, thus placing immense pressure on the food supply chain. Cold Atmospheric pressure Plasma (CAP) represents a promising, low-cost, and environmentally friendly means to degrade mycotoxins with negligible effect on the quality of food products. Despite this promise, the study of CAP-mediated mycotoxin degradation has been limited to a small subset of the vast number of mycotoxins that plague the food supply chain. This study explores the degradation of aflatoxins, trichothecenes, fumonisins, and zearalenone using CAP generated in ambient air. CAP treatment was found to reduce aflatoxins by 93%, trichothecenes by 90%, fumonisins by 93%, and zearalenone by 100% after 8 minutes exposure. To demonstrate the potential of CAP-mediated mycotoxin degradation against more conventional methods, its efficiency was compared against ultraviolet C (UVC) light irradiation. In all cases, CAP was found to be considerably more efficient than UVC, with aflatoxin G1 and zearalenone being completely degraded, levels that could not be achieved using UVC irradiation.
Highlights
Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced during the secondary metabolism of filamentous fungi and are known to regularly spoil food and feed products
Key Contribution: For the first time, this study explores the interaction of Cold Atmospheric pressure Plasma (CAP) with a number of different problem mycotoxins, highlighting impressive degradation efficiencies compared to more conventional ultraviolet C (UVC) exposure
The efficiency of CAP mycotoxin removal was evaluated according to the current European Union (EU) legislation dictating the maximum permissible levels of mycotoxin residual on food products
Summary
Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced during the secondary metabolism of filamentous fungi and are known to regularly spoil food and feed products. Most mycotoxins are chemically and thermally stable during food processing, meaning such contamination is extremely difficult to remove. They can harm human health through a wide range of toxic effects, including carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, hepatotoxicity, mutagenicity, neurotoxicity. The food supply chain urgently needs a mycotoxin decontamination method that is low-cost, highly effective, and can be applied to contaminated food to minimise waste and enhance safety for the consumer. Several studies have identified that UV irradiation is a potential technology for the decontamination of mycotoxins such as AFs, trichothecenes, and ZEN [6,7,8,9]
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