CHINA – Pribolab, a food safety technical and solution provider, has launched its groundbreaking solution, the Pribofast Immunoaffinity Column.
The supplier explained that its Pribofast Immunoaffinity Columns are designed with high selectivity to target and purify specific mycotoxins from complex samples.
This means more accurate results and cleaner analyses, crucial for ensuring safety in food, feed, and environmental samples. The Pribofast column analyses aflatoxins, ochratoxins, or any other mycotoxins.
This launch comes as scientists in food and feed ingredient companies are increasingly target the crop contaminant to bolster food safety. Mycotoxins infect more than 25% of globally produced grains yearly, lower crop quality and cause financial losses for farmers.
Containment of mycotoxins in crops is important as these are toxic secondary metabolites naturally produced by different types of fungi, such as Aspergillus spp.
They can enter the food chain because of infection of crops before (field mycotoxins) or after harvest (storage mycotoxins). They are typically found in cereals and oilseeds, meant for human and animal consumption.
The presence of mycotoxins in food and feed may cause adverse health effects in humans and animals, ranging from gastrointestinal and kidney disorders to immune deficiency and cancer,” states the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
COCERAL, the European association of trade in cereals, oilseeds, rice, pulses, olive oil, oils and fats, animal feed and agrosupply forecasts that mycotoxins like aflatoxins and ochratoxins in corn, deoxynivalenol, the sum of T-2 and H-T2 toxins in all cereals, zearalenone and alternaria toxins in oilseeds to become more prevalent in the next ten years.
This is due to heat waves, especially in southeastern Europe. There is also a “growing concern” for the rise of Tilletia spp and rust fungi.
They also expect an increasing percentage of grains fit for human consumption will have to be “declassified as feed,” as EU regulatory levels for mycotoxins in food will “likely not be met” due to an increase in prevalence and co-occurrence of different mycotoxins.
In March, scientists in Canada have used cold plasma techniques to target fungal mycotoxins and reduce contamination in wheat and barley grains for enhancing food safety and reducing agricultural product losses associated with it. The method can also boost seed germination to enhance beer production.
The scientists reduced the levels of zearalenone and deoxynivalenol — the two major mycotoxins affecting grains in Canada, by 54% in one minute to one hour, which they say can potentially increase the F&B industry’s efficiency.
Last year, Bühler unveiled optical sorters to increase nut yields that combat aflatoxin, a poisonous mycotoxin in nuts.
Animal food brands are also innovating through mycotoxin binders that can reduce the risk of mycotoxin infections in animal feeds.
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