Mycotoxins affecting quality of life

Abstract

The paper is a written version of the scientific presentation given on the annual meeting of the Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Pécs (on 22 February of 2018 in Pécs). The number of people dying as a result of foodborne diseases is about 420.000. The global burden of foodborne diseases caused in 2010 was 33 million DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Year). Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi, found all around the world as natural contaminants, still unavoidable in the human food chain. This paper provides current data on the worldwide occurrence of mycotoxins and introduces their human health and food safety risks. It summarizes human exposure data in Europe determined by multi-biomarker analyses using human urine samples. It highlights the importance of multi-mycotoxin exposure assessments because of the complexity of mycotoxin interactions. Multi-mycotoxin contamination, the co-contamination of emerging and masked mycotoxins makes the continuous monitoring and revision of limit values necessary