3. Fusarium mycotoxins in cereals - Plant Research International ...

Summary
Fusarium head blight (FHB) in wheat and barley and Fusarium ear rot in maize is caused
by several Fusarium species. Infection with Fusarium fungi firstly decreases the yield of the
crop due to the production of shrunken kernels. More importantly, however, the disease
reduces the quality of the seed since several of these fungi produce mycotoxins. Examples
of mycotoxins produced by Fusarium in cereals are deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, fumonisins
and zearalenone. From a food safety point of view, consumption of mycotoxin-infected
cereals is dangerous as it threatens the health of men and animals. Currently, the EU is
working on legislation and set maximum tolerated levels of mycotoxin concentrations in
flour and cereal products.
This working document ‘Food safety of cereals: A chain wide approach to reduce
Fusarium mycotoxins’ is the final deliverable of EU FAIR-CT98-4094, i.e. the Concerted
Action ‘Quality Control Measures in the Production and Processing Chain to Reduce
Fusarium Mycotoxin Contamination of Food and Feed Grains’ with the acronym
‘Mycotochain’. The Concerted Action has brought together over 20 European actors in the
cereals production chain during the period January 1999 through June 2002, to discuss the
possibilities to reduce Fusarium mycotoxin contamination of food and feed grains.
Partners originate from eight European countries: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany,
Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and belong to fundamental
research organisations, such as universities and governmental institutes, commercial
breeding companies, the trade, a millers association, a milling company and food and feed
safety organisations. This document describes the activities of the Concerted Action,
which was structured in four task groups.
An Introduction to the Concerted Action is presented in chapter 1. An out-line is given of
the objectives as well as of the research tasks. The main objective of this Concerted Action
is the exchange of knowledge between partners. To stimulate this exchange of knowledge
three general meetings were organised in which partners were invited to present their
research results, to share information regarding the Fusarium-mycotoxin problem and to
discuss relevant topics in the mycotoxin field. Exchange of information between partners
resulted in the writing of the chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this document.
Chapter 2 deals with various aspects of crop production. The first part of this chapter
informs about breeding for resistance in wheat. A description is given of the Fusarium
species that are involved in the infection process and the types of mycotoxins that are
being produced. The problem of mycotoxin contamination is a problem that starts at the
beginning of the production chain where susceptible wheat varieties are used. The use of
resistant varieties is important to reduce mycotoxin contamination. Since, however, no
1