Mycotoxin Research in Algeria: A Comprehensive Review of Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions

Fumonisins in Maize: Can We Reduce Their Occurrence?

Preventive Strategy Against Infectious Diarrhea—A Holistic Approach

This chapter delves into the dynamic field of mycotoxin research and the creative approaches being used to improve food safety by addressing the problems caused by mycotoxigenic fungus. Toxic secondary metabolites pose a serious danger to human health and food security. They are produced by fungi including Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium species. Because of their prevalence in crops, particularly staple grains like peanuts, wheat, and maize, much study is required to comprehend their methods of development and create practical mitigation measures. Mycotoxin production in fungus is influenced by genetic and metabolic processes that have been clarified by recent advances in mycotoxin research. Designing focused strategies to stop fungal contamination in agricultural contexts requires careful consideration of these observations. Innovative strategies include the creation of biocontrol agents, genetic engineering of crops to increase resistance, and environmentally friendly detoxifying techniques to reduce mycotoxin contamination in food and feed. Additionally, advancements in analytical methods including Mass Spectrometry (MS), biosensors, and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) have transformed the identification and measurement of mycotoxins in a variety of matrices. These delicate techniques are essential for adhering to regulations and guaranteeing that food safety requirements are fulfilled. This chapter also outlines new directions in mycotoxin research, including the effects of global commerce on the regional distribution of mycotoxin contamination and the dynamics of fungal growth and mycotoxin production.

Food Hygiene and Global Health

Since veterinary medicine plays an important role in assuring a nation's food safety, therefore the present status of our food safety, where large numbers of consumers in Bangladesh have become victims of consuming adulterated foods, needs to be enhanced and governed by the guideline of veterinary and public health educators. This article highlights the need of an integrated collaborative approach between academicians and government officials for the creation and dissemination of food-safety teaching driving force to mitigate food borne diseases, ensure food safety, control mischievous and fraudulent adulteration – all destined to a harmonious national health strategic action plan. Veterinary education is very effective for cor- rect implementation of the stable to table concept and best serves the public when it is updated on current market needs of food products and measures protecting animal health. Universities in Europe and USA have adjusted their veterinary medicine curricula during the past few years. Experts predicted determinant changes by 2020 that would influence the work of the veterinarians. All of them are in favor of placing food quality and food safety and public health as the highest priorities in future veterinary education. In Bangladesh, Universities and Veterinary Colleges are producing qualified Veterinary Food Hygienists to deal with matters of health and demands for consumers’ food protection. The veterinary education blends veterinarians with strong capacity to advocate the assurance of food quality and safety from farm to fork. Government in collaboration with veterinary food hygienist should advocate academic and field covered sciencebased food safety system. It is hoped that in the near future Bangladesh will come forward with veterinary public health responsibilities incorporated in national food safety program. The concerned authorities in collaboration with international public health authority like WHO should establish a center for food safety, food quality control, and zoonoses.

Since veterinary medicine plays an important role in assuring a nation's food safety, therefore the present status of our food safety, where large numbers of consumers in Bangladesh have become victims of consuming adulterated foods, needs to be enhanced and governed by the guideline of veterinary and public health educators. This article highlights the need of an integrated collaborative approach between academicians and government officials for the creation and dissemination of food-safety teaching driving force to mitigate food borne diseases, ensure food safety, control mischievous and fraudulent adulteration – all destined to a harmonious national health strategic action plan. Veterinary education is very effective for cor- rect implementation of the stable to table concept and best serves the public when it is updated on current market needs of food products and measures protecting animal health. Universities in Europe and USA have adjusted their veterinary medicine curricula during the past few years. Experts predicted determinant changes by 2020 that would influence the work of the veterinarians. All of them are in favor of placing food quality and food safety and public health as the highest priorities in future veterinary education. In Bangladesh, Universities and Veterinary Colleges are producing qualified Veterinary Food Hygienists to deal with matters of health and demands for consumers’ food protection. The veterinary education blends veterinarians with strong capacity to advocate the assurance of food quality and safety from farm to fork. Government in collaboration with veterinary food hygienist should advocate academic and field covered sciencebased food safety system. It is hoped that in the near future Bangladesh will come forward with veterinary public health responsibilities incorporated in national food safety program. The concerned authorities in collaboration with international public health authority like WHO should establish a center for food safety, food quality control, and zoonoses.

Food safety vs health and safety

The development and application of modern sequencing technologies have led to many new improvements in food safety and public health. With unprecedented resolution and big data, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has enabled food safety specialists to sequence marker genes, whole genomes, and transcriptomes of microorganisms almost in real-time. These data reveal not only the identity of a pathogen or an organism of interest in the food supply but its virulence potential and functional characteristics. HTS of amplicons, allow better characterization of the microbial communities associated with food and the environment. New and powerful bioinformatics tools, algorithms, and machine learning allow for development of new models to predict and tackle important events such as foodborne disease outbreaks. Despite its potential, the integration of HTS into current food safety systems is far from complete. Government agencies have embraced this new technology, and use it for disease diagnostics, food safety inspections, and outbreak investigations. However, adoption and application of HTS by the food industry have been comparatively slow, sporadic, and fragmented. Incorporation of HTS by food manufacturers in their food safety programs could reinforce the design and verification of effectiveness of control measures by providing greater insight into the characteristics, origin, relatedness, and evolution of microorganisms in our foods and environment. Here, we discuss this new technology, its power, and potential. A brief history of implementation by public health agencies is presented, as are the benefits and challenges for the food industry, and its future in the context of food safety.

Mycotoxins, toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi, present significant health risks through contaminated food and feed. Despite broad documentation of their general impacts, emerging research highlights the requirement of addressing both sex- and gender-specific differences in the risk of exposure, susceptibility, and health outcomes in mycotoxin screening and mitigation strategies. Distinct biological (sex-based) and sociocultural (gender-based) factors can influence the risk of mycotoxin exposure and subsequent health impacts; women may for example exhibit specific exposures to certain mycotoxins due to physiological and hormonal differences, with increased risks during critical life stages such as pregnancy and lactation. Conversely, men may demonstrate distinct metabolic and immune responses to these toxins. Socioeconomic and cultural factors also contribute to gender-specific exposure risks, including occupational exposures, dietary habits, and healthcare access. Current mycotoxin screening methodologies and regulatory frameworks often disregard these sex and gender disparities, resulting in incomplete risk assessments and suboptimal public health interventions. This review addresses the incorporation of sex- and gender-specific data into mycotoxin research, the development of advanced screening techniques, and the implementation of targeted mitigation strategies. Addressing these sex and gender differences is crucial for enhancing the efficacy of mycotoxin management policies and safeguarding public health. Future research directions and policy recommendations are discussed to promote a more comprehensive and practical approach to mycotoxin risk assessment and control.

Since the discovery of aflatoxins in the 1960s, knowledge in the mycotoxin research field has increased dramatically. Hundreds of review articles have been published summarizing many different aspects, including mycotoxin contamination per country or region. However, mycotoxin contamination in the Arab world, which includes 22 countries in Africa and Asia, has not yet been specifically reviewed. To this end, the contamination of mycotoxins in the Arab world was reviewed not only to profile the pervasiveness of the problem in this region but also to identify the main knowledge gaps imperiling the safety of food and feed in the future. To the best of our knowledge, 306 (non-)indexed publications in English, Arabic, or French were published from 1977 to 2021, focusing on the natural occurrence of mycotoxins in matrices of 14 different categories. Characteristic factors (e.g., detected mycotoxins, concentrations, and detection methods) were extracted, processed, and visualized. The main results are summarized as follows: (i) research on mycotoxin contamination has increased over the years. However, the accumulated data on their occurrences are scarce to non-existent in some countries; (ii) the state-of-the-art technologies on mycotoxin detection are not broadly implemented neither are contemporary multi-mycotoxin detection strategies, thus showing a need for capacity-building initiatives; and (iii) mycotoxin profiles differ among food and feed categories, as well as between human biofluids. Furthermore, the present work highlights contemporary legislation in the Arab countries and provides future perspectives to mitigate mycotoxins, enhance food and feed safety, and protect the consumer public. Concluding, research initiatives to boost mycotoxin research among Arab countries are strongly recommended.

Ensuring food safety and regulatory compliance is critical to public health protection, yet the United States faces a significant workforce shortage in food safety and public health professionals, particularly in underserved regions. As food systems become increasingly complex and globalized, the demand for professionals trained in food regulation, inspection, compliance technologies, and hazard mitigation is growing. However, many communities—especially rural areas and minority-owned food businesses—lack access to adequately trained personnel, increasing the risk of foodborne illness and regulatory non-compliance. This manuscript addresses the urgent need to expand workforce capacity by proposing a scalable, equity-driven national training and certification model. The model targets underrepresented populations, small-to-medium food enterprises (SMEs), and minority-owned businesses that often face systemic barriers to hiring or retaining food safety experts. Through modular, competency-based education aligned with HACCP, FDA, and USDA standards, this initiative offers flexible delivery pathways including hybrid online instruction, in-person practical training, and community-based workforce partnerships. The proposed model integrates training in emerging technologies such as AI-enabled traceability, real-time compliance monitoring, and risk forecasting—ensuring that trainees are equipped to operate in digitally evolving food safety ecosystems. By fostering local talent pipelines and supporting inclusive career advancement, the initiative strengthens not only food regulatory systems but also health equity and community resilience. We discuss implementation strategies involving public-private partnerships, academic collaborations, and sustainable federal investment. Advancing workforce capacity in food safety is not just a technical imperative—it is a national priority with profound implications for health equity, economic opportunity, and the prevention of disease. This paper outlines a blueprint for action to modernize food safety education, elevate underrepresented voices, and build a resilient workforce that can meet the challenges of tomorrow’s food and public health landscape. Keywords: Food Safety Workforce, Public Health Training, Regulatory Compliance, Health Equity, Workforce Innovation.

Protein and amino acid oxidation in food products produce many new compounds, of which the reactive and toxic compound dityrosine, derived from oxidized tyrosine, is the most widely studied. The high reactivity of dityrosine enables this compound to induce oxidative stress and disrupt thyroid hormone function, contributing to the pathological processes of several diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, cognitive dysfunction, aging, and age-related diseases. From the perspective of food safety and human health, protein-oxidation products in food are the main concern of consumers, health management departments, and the food industry. This review highlights the latest research on the formation pathways, toxicity, detection methods, occurrence in food, and mitigation strategies for dityrosine. Furthermore, the control of dityrosine in family cooking and food-processing industry has been discussed. Food-derived dityrosine primarily originates from high-protein foods, such as meat and dairy products. Considering its toxicity, combining rapid high sensitivity dityrosine detection techniques with feasible control methods could be an effective strategy to ensure food safety and maintain human health. However, the current dityrosine detection and mitigation strategies exhibit some inherent characteristics and limitations. Therefore, developing technologies for rapid and effective dityrosine detection and control at the industrial level is necessary.

Expanding Conflicts of Interest in Public Health Research

The viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state is defined as an adaptive mechanism for microorganisms adjusting to stressful conditions. Although VBNC bacteria are alive and metabolically active, they are unable to grow on routine culture media. Nevertheless, the potential capacity of VBNC pathogens to retain virulence activity and further resuscitate into the culturable state in favorable conditions constitutes a major hazard to food safety and public health. Food processing, transformation, and storage, as well as non-thermal techniques, can provoke pathogens toward VBNC induction. The distinct characteristic of VBNC bacteria led to the emergence of novel culture-independent techniques to prevent the misinterpretation of food safety. To deepen our knowledge of the molecular aspect of the VBNC state, several mechanism-oriented studies investigated the metabolic activity of VBNC bacteria and their correlation with different stressful conditions. This review aims to discuss the molecular mechanisms and genomic factors underlying the induction and resuscitation of the VBNC state. The study will further highlight innovative detection methods to provide a comprehensive perspective for future studies in the emerging fields of research concerning VBNC state, food safety, and public health.

Milk is highly perishable and can be a conduit for the transmission of zoonotic foodborne pathogens. This cross-sectional survey involving 159 farming households and 18 participant observations in participating farms was undertaken in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas in Oromia, Ethiopia to assess the adoption of food safety measures in smallholder farms. Adoption of food safety measures at the farm level influences milk quality and safety across the entire milk value chain, from “grass to glass”. This study considered the adoption of 36 different food safety measures (FSM) including animal health, milking hygiene, hygienic milk storage, and hygienic milking premises. A weighted food safety index (FSI, ranging from 0 to 100) was calculated for each household based on FSM adopted. Ordinary Least Squares linear regression was used to quantify the factors of FSM adoption by smallholder farmers. The overall food safety index ranged between 59.97—60.75. A majority of farmers may be classified as moderate adopters of FSM (index ranging between 30–70%). Farm and farmers’ characteristics such as herd size, farmer’s education level, farmer’s expertise in dairying, and participation of the farm in the formal milk value- chain, were shown to positively influence the level of adoption of FSM. Low farm-level adoption of FSM has food safety and public health implications as it can lead to milk contamination and, therefore, expose consumers to foodborne diseases. There is an imperative for policymakers to design and implement policies and intervention strategies that lead to increased farmer training related to livestock production and awareness of the important role that FSM adoption can play in improving food safety and public health.