Essay On Mycotoxins

Environmental contaminants in food
6) Naturally occurring toxins
A. Mycotoxins
i. Introduction One of the naturally occurring toxicants is mycotoxins, where the mycotoxin is actually produced by filamentous fungi or molds as secondary metabolites (Zain, 2011). Mycotoxin are known as mycotoxins because they are produced by fungi or molds, and considered to be toxic to vertebrates and other animal categories in small concentration (Zain, 2011). Mycotoxins usually low moleculer weight compounds, and they are produce under a suitable temperature, humidity and may develop or grow in various foods and animal feeds (Zain, 2011). Their growth in foods and animal foods can cause health risk to human and animal. This toxin can enter into human body through ingestion which is a most common method, and they also can enter human body through inhalation or skin contact (Marin et al., 2013). Human can ingest the mycotoxins through consumption of plant derived food that already contaminated with toxins, and also by consuming animal products such as meat and eggs or even by food exposure to air and dust which contains mycotoxins, the meat and eggs can contain mycotoxins when the

Usually this scombroid poisoning occurs in humans due to the consumption of mishandled fish (Hungerford, 2010). According to Rawles (as cited in Hungerford, 2010) the histamine (2-(1H-imidazol-4-yl) ethanamine) and also other decomposition products are generated in spoiled or rotten fish (due to time and temperature) by bacterial, enzymatic conversation of free histidine. The free histidine (common amino acid) is converted into histamine by action of bacterial histamine decarboxylase (HDC) by the time-temperature abuse (Hungerford, 2010). The onset period for poisoning of scombroid is 10minutes to 1 hour (Ansdell as cited in Hungerford,