Mycotoxins: Quality Management, Prevention, Metabolism, Toxicity and Biomonitoring

When fungi grow on a living organism or on stored food material that we consume, they may produce harmful metabolites that diffuse into their food (Garcia et al., 2009; Kabak and Dobson, 2009). It is believed that fungi evolved these metabolites as a means of protecting their food supply by preventing other organisms from eating it. These metabolites are referred to as mycotoxins, which literally mean "fungus poisons". Fungi that produce mycotoxins do not have to be present to do harm. When a fungus grows grains in storage, the environment may become unsuitable for the fungus and it dies. Although the fungus dies, during the growth stage, if it produces mycotoxins, this can poison the grains (Fokunang et al., 2006). The effects of poisoning by mycotoxin are referred to as mycotoxicoses. The knowledge that mycotoxicoses is the result of fungal actions was a relatively, recent discovery (Lackner et al., 2009). This is understandable since illnesses in this case are due to consumption of mycotoxins that has been released by the fungus and is not directly caused by the fungus (Coppock and Jacobsen, 2009).