The association research platform MYTOX “Mycotoxins and Toxigenic Moulds” held the 5th meeting of its International Symposium in Ghent, Belgium on 11 May 2016. The Symposium welcomed over 100 scientists, researchers and representatives from industry and government as well as academia to discuss all aspects of mycotoxin research including production, occurrence and detection, the impact on human and animal health, reduction and prevention, toxicology and other topics. Mycotoxins—toxic fungal secondary metabolites—play a significant role in food and feed safety, as well as in medical and environmental microbiology. Indeed, mycotoxins have been shown to be the number one threat amongst food and feed contaminants regarding chronic toxicity. Economic losses are due to effects on livestock productivity and direct losses in crop yield and stored agricultural products. Legislative limits for a range of mycotoxins continue to develop worldwide, resulting in an increased number of official controls deriving from national food safety plans and for food trade purposes. Furthermore, environmental mycotoxins are a continuous threat to human and animal health.

Authors: Sarah De Saeger, Kris Audenaert, Siska Croubels
Keywords: mycotoxins; toxigenic moulds;
Published: 12/05/2016
Repository: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4885061

This work has received funding form the  the EU’s H2020 research and innovation programme under GA No 678781- MycoKey. CC BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/