Deoxynivalenol and its masked forms in food and feed

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most frequently occurring mycotoxins in cereal crops worldwide. DON poses a risk to human and animal health due to its wide range of adverse effects. Recently, novel insights into the metabolism of DON enabled the use of the biomarker approach for human exposure assessment. In certain subpopulations, a considerable proportion of tested individuals were found to exceed the maximum tolerable intake for DON. Since the masked mycotoxin deoxynivalenol-3-beta-D-glucoside (DON-3-Glc) is partly cleaved during mammalian digestion, liberation of DON might further increase the total mycotoxin burden. However, progress in better understanding detoxification strategies along the food and feed chain has been made and the first product for DON detoxification in feed was approved in the EU.