A Recent Overview of Producers and Important Dietary Sources of Aflatoxins

Abstract

Aflatoxins (AFs) are some of the most agriculturally important and harmful mycotoxins. At least 20 AFs have been identified to this date. Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), the most potent fungal toxin, can cause toxicity in many species, including humans. AFs are produced by 22 species of Aspergillus section Flavi, 4 species of A. section Nidulantes, and 2 species of A. section Ochraceorosei. The most important and well-known AF-producing species of section Flavi are Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. nomius. AFs contaminate a wide range of crops (mainly groundnuts, pistachio nuts, dried figs, hazelnuts, spices, almonds, rice, melon seeds, Brazil nuts, and maize). Foods of animal origin (milk and animal tissues) are less likely contributors to human AF exposure. Despite the efforts to mitigate the AF concentrations in foods, and thus enhance food safety, AFs continue to be present, even at high levels. AFs thus remain a current and continuously pressing problem in the world.

Keywords: aflatoxigenic microfungi; aflatoxins; food.

Figure 1

Aflatoxin notifications in food by the RASFF in 2020. Note: All products in the “Other products” category were notified less than four times in 2020. The category “Other countries” includes notifications from 24 countries, in which less than 9 notifications originated and 2 notifications were of unknown origin. Processed according to RASFF database [144].