Decontamination of mycotoxins from cereal grains using gamma irradiation; a review

Cereals are one of the most important agricultural products in the world. Cereal grainsare the most commonly consumed food group worldwide and they are grown on about60% of the cultivated land in the world. Also, major types of cereal grains includemaize, rice, wheat ,barley, sorghum, millet, oats, and rye. Economic losses and healthconcerns due to mycotoxins occur at all levels of food and feed production. Therefore,because of worldwide significant and extensive use of cereal grains, preservation anddecontamination are one of the most important food safety issues, owing to the highcontamination of cereal grains by mycotoxins, particularly, aflatoxins. Therefore, it isessential to reduce cereal grain contamination to the minimum to ensure safety forhuman and animal consumption. Microorganisms present in cereals can affect thesafety and quality of grains. Some molds have the potential to produce harmfulmycotoxins and pose a serious health risk for consumers. Mycotoxins have diversstructures, which are mainly produced through the secondary metabolism offilamentous fungi mainly belonging to Fusarium, Aspergillus and Penicillium under thesuitable humidity and temperature and reported to be carcinogenic, genotoxic,teratogenic, nephro- and hepatotoxic. Various methods for reducing or degradingmycotoxins have been previously researched and include diverse physical, chemical,and biological methods. This review evaluates the application of gamma irradiation asa non-thermal strategy to decontaminate mycotoxins in cereal grains. Gammairradiation is a physical technique based on the ability of high-energy photons producedby radiation of 60Co to induce chemical changes of target combination by causing itsdegradation or create of new compounds. The use of gamma radiation is an effectivetechnique for detoxifying foods. Moreover in this review, the impact of gammairradiation is discussed with regards to parameters such as matrix composition, watercontent, radiation dose, type and concentration of mycotoxins.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aflatoxin ، Cereal ، Gamma irradiation