Food irradiation is the process of exposing food and food packaging to ionizing radiation, such as from gamma rays, x-rays, or electron beams. Food irradiation improves food safety and extends product shelf life (preservation) by effectively destroying organisms responsible for spoilage and foodborne illness, inhibits sprouting or ripening, and is a means of controlling insects and invasive pests.
Aflatoxins are various poisonous carcinogens and mutagens that are produced by certain molds, particularly Aspergillus species mainly by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. According to the USDA, "They are probably the best known and most intensively researched mycotoxins in the world." The fungi grow in soil, decaying vegetation and various staple foodstuffs and commodities such as hay, maize, peanuts, coffee, wheat, millet, sorghum, cassava, rice, chili peppers, cottonseed, tree nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and various cereal grains and oil seeds. In short, the relevant fungi grow on almost any crop or food. When such contaminated food is processed or consumed, the aflatoxins enter the general food supply. They have been found in both pet and human foods, as well as in feedstocks for agricultural animals. Animals fed contaminated food can pass aflatoxin transformation products into milk, milk products, and meat. For example, contaminated poultry feed is the suspected source of aflatoxin-contaminated chicken meat and eggs in Pakistan.
A mycotoxin is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by fungi and is capable of causing disease and death in both humans and other animals. The term 'mycotoxin' is usually reserved for the toxic chemical products produced by fungi that readily colonize crops.
Aspergillus flavus is a saprotrophic and pathogenic fungus with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is best known for its colonization of cereal grains, legumes, and tree nuts. Postharvest rot typically develops during harvest, storage, and/or transit. Its specific name flavus derives from the Latin meaning yellow, a reference to the frequently observed colour of the spores. A. flavus infections can occur while hosts are still in the field (preharvest), but often show no symptoms (dormancy) until postharvest storage or transport.
Aspergillus is a genus consisting of several hundred mold species found in various climates worldwide.
Aspergillus oryzae is a mold used in East Asia to saccharify rice, sweet potato, and barley in the making of alcoholic beverages such as sake and shōchū, and also to ferment soybeans for making soy sauce and miso. It is one of the different koji molds ニホンコウジカビ (日本麹黴) used for food fermentation.
Mycotoxicology is the branch of mycology that focuses on analyzing and studying the toxins produced by fungi, known as mycotoxins. In the food industry it is important to adopt measures that keep mycotoxin levels as low as practicable, especially those that are heat-stable. These chemical compounds are the result of secondary metabolism initiated in response to specific developmental or environmental signals. This includes biological stress from the environment, such as lower nutrients or competition for those available. Under this secondary path the fungus produces a wide array of compounds in order to gain some level of advantage, such as incrementing the efficiency of metabolic processes to gain more energy from less food, or attacking other microorganisms and being able to use their remains as a food source.
Sterigmatocystin is a polyketide mycotoxin produced by certain species of Aspergillus. The toxin is naturally found in some cheeses.
Olumbe Bassir (1919–2001) was a Nigerian scientist, author and academic. His primary contributions to research were in the areas of aflatoxins, nutrition, and peace research.
Pathogenic fungi are fungi that cause disease in humans or other organisms. Although fungi are eukaryotic, many pathogenic fungi are microorganisms. Approximately 300 fungi are known to be pathogenic to humans; their study is called "medical mycology". Fungal infections are estimated to kill more people than either tuberculosis or malaria—about two million people per year.
Aflatoxin B1 is an aflatoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. It is a very potent carcinogen with a TD50 3.2 μg/kg/day in rats. This carcinogenic potency varies across species with some, such as rats and monkeys, seemingly much more susceptible than others. Aflatoxin B1 is a common contaminant in a variety of foods including peanuts, cottonseed meal, corn, and other grains; as well as animal feeds. Aflatoxin B1 is considered the most toxic aflatoxin and it is highly implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in humans. In animals, aflatoxin B1 has also been shown to be mutagenic, teratogenic, and to cause immunosuppression. Several sampling and analytical methods including thin-layer chromatography (TLC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), mass spectrometry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), among others, have been used to test for aflatoxin B1 contamination in foods. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a division of the United Nations, the worldwide maximum tolerated levels of aflatoxin B1 was reported to be in the range of 1–20 μg/kg (or .001 ppm - 1 part-per-billion) in food, and 5–50 μg/kg (.005 ppm) in dietary cattle feed in 2003.
Charles Odamtten Easmon or C. O. Easmon, popularly known as Charlie Easmon, was a medical doctor and academic who became the first Ghanaian to formally qualify as a surgeon specialist and the first Dean of the University of Ghana Medical School. Easmon performed the first successful open-heart surgery in Ghana in 1964, and modern scholars credit him as the "Father of Cardiac Surgery in West Africa". Easmon was of Sierra Leone Creole, Ga-Dangme, African-American, Danish, and Irish ancestry and a member of the distinguished Easmon family, a Sierra Leone Creole medical dynasty of African-American descent.
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi, commonly detected as contaminants in agricultural commodities globally. Exposure to these toxins can be very detrimental to both humans and animal, and can lead to mycotoxicosis, which can be a variety of medical conditions. In animals, exposure through feed can disrupt nutrient digestion, absorption, metabolism, and even affect animal physiology. The most common fungi that produce mycotoxins include Fusarium, Aspergillus, and Penicillium.
Aspergillus ochraceus is a mold species in the genus Aspergillus known to produce the toxin ochratoxin A, one of the most abundant food-contaminating mycotoxins, and citrinin. It also produces the dihydroisocoumarin mellein. It is a filamentous fungus in nature and has characteristic biseriate conidiophores. Traditionally a soil fungus, has now began to adapt to varied ecological niches, like agricultural commodities, farmed animal and marine species. In humans and animals the consumption of this fungus produces chronic neurotoxic, immunosuppressive, genotoxic, carcinogenic and teratogenic effects. Its airborne spores are one of the potential causes of asthma in children and lung diseases in humans. The pig and chicken populations in the farms are the most affected by this fungus and its mycotoxins. Certain fungicides like mancozeb, copper oxychloride, and sulfur have inhibitory effects on the growth of this fungus and its mycotoxin producing capacities.
George Carver Clerk, was a Ghanaian botanist and plant pathologist. A professor and later, an emeritus professor at the University of Ghana, Legon, he also focused his research on West African mycology and ecology. Clerk, along with his academic contemporary Ebenezer Laing (1931–2015), was one of Ghana's earliest practitioners of botany as a scientific discipline, in addition to his pioneering role as a plant pathologist in West Africa. In 1973, G. C. Clerk became a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) is a government agency under the Department of Science and Technology mandated to undertake research and development activities in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, institute regulations on the said uses, and carry out the enforcement of said regulations to protect the health and safety of radiation workers and the general public.
Aspergillus parasiticus is a fungus belonging to the genus Aspergillus. This species is an unspecialized saprophytic mold, mostly found outdoors in areas of rich soil with decaying plant material as well as in dry grain storage facilities. Often confused with the closely related species, A. flavus, A. parasiticus has defined morphological and molecular differences. Aspergillus parasiticus is one of three fungi able to produce the mycotoxin, aflatoxin, one of the most carcinogenic naturally occurring substances. Environmental stress can upregulate aflatoxin production by the fungus, which can occur when the fungus is growing on plants that become damaged due to exposure to poor weather conditions, during drought, by insects, or by birds. In humans, exposure to A. parasiticus toxins can cause delayed development in children and produce serious liver diseases and/or hepatic carcinoma in adults. The fungus can also cause the infection known as aspergillosis in humans and other animals. A. parasiticus is of agricultural importance due to its ability to cause disease in corn, peanut, and cottonseed.
Aflatoxin M1 is a chemical compound of the aflatoxin class, a group of mycotoxins produced by three species of Aspergillus – Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, and the rare Aspergillus nomius – which contaminate plant and plant products.
Aspergillus wentii is an asexual, filamentous, endosymbiotic fungus belonging to the mold genus, Aspergillus. It is a common soil fungus with a cosmopolitan distribution, although it is primarily found in subtropical regions. Found on a variety of organic materials, A. wentii is known to colonize corn, cereals, moist grains, peanuts and other ground nut crops. It is also used in the manufacture of biodiesel from lipids and is known for its ability to produce enzymes used in the food industry.
John Ingram Pitt was an Australian mycologist, known as a leading expert on the role of fungi in food spoilage. He gained an international reputation as a pioneering researcher on the ecology of spoilage molds in extreme environments.
