Recent advances on toxicity and determination methods of mycotoxins in foodstuffs

Abstract Background Mycotoxins exposure from foodstuffs can trigger serious health hazards (e.g. cancers, deformity and mutation), which has been a global public health concern. In recent years, large-scale poisoning incidents and international trade disputes caused by fungal contamination are extremely common. Unremitting efforts have been devoted to the investigations on classification, toxicity and occurrence of mycotoxins. Monitoring mycotoxins is highly important to ensure human health. Pretreatment technologies offer a pre-analytical separation process for reducing the instruments contamination, signal interference and matrix effects of complex foodstuffs. Scope and approach In this review, the classification, toxicity and occurrence of mycotoxins were concisely summarized. We then concentrated our attentions on the methods of extraction, clean-up, separation and determination of mycotoxins. Especially, the rapid development of nanotechnology has brought many opportunities for sample pretreatment. We have also summarized the available and advanced adsorbents based on the emerging nanomaterials for pretreatment of mycotoxins in foodstuffs. At the end of the article, future opportunities and challenges in the field of mycotoxins research are tentatively proposed. Key Findings and Conclusions: This review comprehensively summarized the latest achievements and improvements in the classification, toxicity, occurrence and detection approaches of mycotoxins. Impressively, the sample pretreatment and detection methods applied for mycotoxins determination in foodstuffs have been summarized, regarding the novel nanomaterial-based pretreatment technologies as well as the development of chromatographic and sensing technologies in the last six years. Furthermore, the current trends and the future perspectives in the toxicity and detection method of mycotoxins are tentatively proposed.