Microbic Toxins in Cereals
Huska Juki´ c
1
, Ivana Radoˇ caj
2
, Marijana Blaži´ c
2
, Ibrahim Muji´ c
2(B )
,
and Sandra Zavadlav
2(B )
1
Faculty of Health Studies, University of Biha´ c, Biha´ c, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2
Department of Food Technology, Karlovac University of Applied of Sciences,
Trg J.J. Strossmayera 9, 47 000 Karlovac, Croatia
szavadlav@vuka.hr
Abstract. Along with a series of microorganisms, different moulds occur as
causes for the spoilage of different foods of plant and animal origin. Their metabo-
lites, i.e. secondary products of metabolism called mycotoxins are a group of natu-
ral compounds that differ in chemical structure and biological activity. Mycotoxins
have different toxic effects in human and animal organisms and can cause danger-
ous diseases called mycotoxicoses. In addition to bacterial and fungal toxins, toxic
products can also be produced by other simple microorganisms. These toxic prod-
ucts pose a great danger to the human body. For detecting microbiotic toxins in
the study was used peanut paste, nuts, poppy seeds and white bread. According to
analyzes of total aflatoxins, aflatoxins B1 and ochratoxins, can be ascertained that
toxins at a significant concentration rarely occur in finished processed products
such as peanut paste, poppy seeds and white bread.
Keywords: Aflatoxins · Cereals · Mildew · Mycotoxicoses · Mycotoxins
1 Introduction
Various types of toxins are present in foods and beverages that we regularly introduce
into our body, and consumers are interested in how much they are allowed in food.
The prescribed quantities can be found in the ordinance on toxins, metals, metalloids
and other harmful substances that may be present in food. It is a significant fact that
the harmful effects of mold food have been discovered in China more than 5000 years
ago, but not every mold is toxic. The mold makes toxic the production of mycotoxins,
that is, a product or by-product produced in the process of mold metabolism, and it is
these that have negative biological effects on humans and animals who consume them
through food. Hundreds of molds that produce mycotoxins are known so far, and there
are more than 300 species of different levels of harmfulness. They began to be studied
more seriously some fifty years ago when it was discovered that the death of a large
number of chickens in England was the result of a mixture of peanut food that produced
a fungus that produces a chemical compound later called aflatoxin, which is the most
famous mycotoxin. Humans are exposed to mycotoxins via contaminated foods, and
the diseases they cause occur in acute or chronic form and are called mycotoxicosis.
Their consequences are clearly manifested symptoms of poisoning, sometimes death.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
I. Karabegovi´ c (Ed.): NT 2021, LNNS 233, pp. 945–951, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75275-0_104