Evaluation of the impact of mycotoxins on human health: Sources of errors

Mycotoxins are toxic compounds, produced by the secondary metabolism of toxigenic molds in the Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium genera occurring in food commodities and foodstuffs. Mycotoxin production is dependent mainly on both well-defined ranges of temperature and A(w) and favorable environmental conditions. The relevance of mycotoxins to human health is rather well established and includes a wide variety of toxic effects (carcinogenic power, immunosuppressive action, etc.). Therefore both producers and governmental control authorities are directing their efforts toward the implementation of a correct and reliable evaluation of the real status of contamination of a lot or food commodity and, consequently, of the impact of mycotoxins on human health. In this paper the main sources of error in the evaluation of the actual impact of mycotoxins on human health are reviewed. In particular, the errors associated with the sampling, subsampling, and analysis steps are reviewed. As far as the biomarker approach is concerned, the errors deriving from a limited knowledge of the metabolism of the single toxin and of the metabolites derived from the parent toxin in biological fluids are briefly outlined. (C) 1998 Academic Press.