Emerging mycotoxins in infant and children foods: A review

Abstract

A proper nutrition is crucial for children’s healthy development. Regardless of the usual recommendations to follow a varied diet, some foods can be a source of toxic natural contaminants such as mycotoxins, potent secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi. In addition to the most well-known mycotoxins, many of which are subject to tight regulation regarding the maximum levels allowed in different types of food, there is a large group of mycotoxins, the so-called emerging mycotoxins, about which less knowledge has already been acquired, which have gradually been the target of interest from the scientific community due to their prevalence in most foodstuffs, particularly in cereals and cereal-based products. Alternariol and his metabolite alternariol mono-methyl ether, beauvericin, citrinin, culmorin, enniatins, ergot alkaloids, fusaproliferin, kojic acid, moniliformin, sterigmatocystin, tentoxin and tenuazonic acid are the most representative of them. The current review gathered the information of the last ten years that have been published on the levels of emerging mycotoxins in food products dedicated for infants and children. European Union countries are responsible for most of the reported studies, which showed levels that can reach hundreds of mg/kg.

Keywords:

• emerging mycotoxins
• occurrence
• distribution
• children food

Acknowledgements

Sara C. Cunha acknowledges FCT for IF/01616/2015 contract. Miguel A. Faria acknowledges FCT the researcher contract.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) and FEDER through the scholarships SFRH/BD/143928/2019 and SFRH/BD/147313/2019 with financial support from FCT/MEC through national funds and co-financed by FEDER, under the Partnership Agreement PT2020., FCT and FEDER. This research was partially supported by national funds through FCT within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020 and AgriFood XXI R&D&I project, operation No. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000041, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through NORTH 2020 (Northern Regional Operational Program 2014/2020).