Modified mycotoxins in foodstuffs, animal feed, and herbal medicine: A systematic review on global occurrence, transformation mechanism and analysis methods

Modified mycotoxins in foodstuffs, animal feed, and herbal medicines present considerable threats to human and animal health. The diversity and wide distribution make their presence unavoidable and difficult to control. The European Food Safety Authority also recommends setting group health-based guidance values for modified mycotoxins. Significant changes in physicochemical properties of modified mycotoxins, making their detection difficult using routine analytical methods. Given the lack of commercial analysis standards and maximum limit regulations, there remains a great challenge for accurate identification and quantitation of modified mycotoxins. This review first summarizes the latest knowledge regarding target and non-target qualitative and quantitative analysis for modified mycotoxins comprehensively. In addition, this review elucidates the major transformation mechanisms of modified mycotoxins. Overall, this work lays the foundation for improving their early detection, consumer warning, safety evaluation, and control of modified mycotoxins. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.