Occurrence, transformation, and toxicity of fumonisins and their covert products during food processing

Abstract

Fumonisins comprise structurally related metabolites mainly produced by Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium proliferatum. Contamination with fumonisins causes incalculable damage to the economy and poses a great risk to animal and human health. Fumonisins and their covert products are found in cereals and cereal products. Food processing significantly affects the degradation of toxins and the formation of covert toxins. However, studies on fumonisins and their covert mycotoxins remain inadequate. This review aims to summarize changes in fumonisins and the generation of covert fumonisins during processing. It also investigates the toxicity and determination methods of fumonisins and covert fumonisins, and elucidates the factors affecting fumonisins and their covert forms during processing. In addition to the metabolic production by plants and fungi, covert fumonisins are mainly produced by covalent or noncovalent binding, complexation, or physical entrapment of fumonisins with other substances. The toxicity of covert fumonisins is similar to that of free fumonisins and is a non-negligible hazard. Covert fumonisins are commonly found in food matrices, and methods to analyze them have yet to be improved. Food processing significantly affects the conversion of fumonisins to their covert toxins.

Keywords:

• covert fumonisin
• food processing
• fumonisin
• toxicity
• transformation

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 32125031]; the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province under Grant [number KYCX22_2396]; the National First-Class Discipline Program of Food Science and Technology under Grant [number JUFSTR20180303]; and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Food Safety and Quality Control.

Authors’ contributions

Diaodiao Yang: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; investigation; writing – original draft-review & editing. Yongli Ye: Data curation, formal analysis; investigation; writing-review & editing. Jiadi Sun: Formal analysis; investigation; writing-review & editing. Jia-Sheng Wang: Formal analysis; investigation; writing-review & editing. Caihong Huang: Formal analysis; investigation; writing-review & editing. Xiulan Sun: Conceptualization; supervision; funding; project administration; writing-review & editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.