Mycotoxins, a Major Challenge in Global Food Security

The world s population has recently reached tomore than 7.5 billion and it is estimated tosurpass 9 billion by the year 2050 (Unep,2013). Since the condition of food-producingecosystems necessarily affects the human healthpopulations, food supply limitations may directlyimpact both the quantity and quality of availablefood. Mycotoxins, as low-molecular-weightnatural products of common filamentous toxicfungi, can contaminate a wide variety ofhuman and animals food (Bennett, 1987).Mycotoxins are a structurally diverse group ofsmall molecular weight compounds producedby several fungal genera such as Aspergillus,Penicillium, Fusarium, Alternaria, Chaetomium,Cladosporium, Claviceps, Diplodia, Myrothecium,Monascus, Phoma, Phomopsis, Pithomyces,Trichoderma, and Stachybotry (Magan et al., 2011,Nielsen et al., 2006, Streit et al., 2012).Although these metabolites have nobiochemical significance in fungal growth anddevelopment, they cause serious risks for humanand animal health upon ingestion, inhalation, orskin contact (Stoev, 2013).