Mycotoxins Test Kits

The term “mycotoxin” identifies a family of toxic secondary metabolites produced by moulds. A hundred of mycotoxins currently exist in nature, however, the attention of the global agro-food industry is focused on a few of them: aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins, ochratoxin, T-2 and HT-2 toxins and zearalenone. Recent studies calculate that mycotoxins affect more than 25% of world’s food, and the issue this contaminants cause is extremely important for livestock as well. Animals fed with mycotoxins containing feed not only suffer, but, with a domino-effect induce great economic losses within the whole livestock industry. These compounds have reportedly been associated with various human and animal diseases and they are a well-established threat for grains and other cultivations.

Mycotoxins are not just matter of grains, coffee, cocoa, wine and spices, but are also relevant for the dairy industry, in particular for the presence of aflatoxin M1. Furthermore, a concern is growing since new toxins and isoforms of the known ones, namely masked mycotoxins, have been discovered in the last years.