Novel strategies for degradation of aflatoxins in food and feed: A review

Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites mainly produced by Aspergillus fungi, posing high carcinogenic potency in humans and animals. Dietary exposure to aflatoxins is a global problem in both developed and developing countries especially where there is poor regulation of their levels in food and feed. Thus, academics have been striving over the decades to develop effective strategies for degrading aflatoxins in food and feed. These strategies are technologically diverse and based on physical, chemical, or biological principles. This review summarizes the recent progress on novel aflatoxin degradation strategies including irradiation, cold plasma, ozone, electrolyzed oxidizing water, organic acids, natural plant extracts, microorganisms and enzymes. A clear understanding of the detoxification efficiency, mechanism of action, degradation products, application potential and current limitations of these methods is presented. In addition, the development and future perspective of nanozymes in aflatoxins degradation are introduced.

Automated summary

Aflatoxins, toxic secondary metabolites mainly produced by Aspergillus fungi, pose high carcinogenic potency in humans and animals. The global issue of dietary exposure to aflatoxins has prompted academics to develop diverse strategies for degrading them, including physical, chemical, and biological methods. This review summarises recent progress on novel aflatoxin degradation strategies and introduces the development and future perspective of nanozymes in aflatoxins degradation.