Ochratoxin - Characteristics, influences and challenges of global research

Ochratoxin, especially Ochratoxin A, is assumed to be one of the five most important mycotoxins contaminating food and feed. Primarily developing countries are affected due to the climate conditions and poorer modes of production. The overall adverse health effects on humans are still unclear, although threatening associations have been proven. Knowledge gaps lead to difficult scientific assessments and different regulations worldwide. Therefore, this study aims at the evaluation of global research by applying advanced bibliometric approaches in combination with convincing visualization techniques based on density equalizing mapping. An amount of 3900 publications on Ochratoxin could be identified published between 1965 and 2019. The USA, China, and Germany are the most publishing countries, whereas, in terms of socio-economic impact, Croatia, Tunisia, and Serbia occupied the first ranks. Influenced by the scientific infrastructure or epidemiological history, these countries satisfy the needs of research. Nevertheless, especially developing countries that belong to the most affected regions are only marginally participating. They have to be integrated into international networks. A public increasing awareness would lead to take up the challenge of controlling human exposure by implication of food and feed safety.