**1. Introduction**

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92 Aflatoxins - Recent Advances and Future Prospects

*Journal of Food Protection*, 46-484.

Talking about Aflatoxins is not a new issue. Aflatoxins are a big problem that day by day turns more important due to their implication in crop production, food quality and human and animal health. Aflatoxins are also everywhere because those toxic secondary metabo‐ lites are mycotoxins produced by a large number of Aspergillus species, being *A. flavus*, and *A. parasiticus* the main producers; nevertheless, species like *A. nomius, A. pseudotamarii, A. parvisclerotigenus, A.bombycis, A. ochraceoroseus, A. rambellii, Emericella astellata* and *E. venezue‐ lensis* are aflatoxin generators too [1,2]. Since those toxins have been recognized as a signifi‐ cant worldwide problem in 1960 (because of being isolated and identified as the causative toxins in "Turkey-X-disease" after 100,000 turkeys died in England from liver acute necrosis and bile duct hyperplasia after consuming groundnuts infected with *Aspergillus flavus*) [3-5], researchers have studied lots of ways to fight against this threat; however, after more than a half century, aflatoxins are still a big problem that has not been easy to deal with, because humans are not able to manipulate essential factors that affect aflatoxin contamination like the region weather, the crop genotype, the soil type, the minimum and maximum daily tem‐ peratures and the daily net evaporation [5].

Aflatoxins (AF) affect almost everything we eat: cereals (maize, wheat and rice principally) and their derivates; oilseeds (cotton, peanut, rapeseed, coconut, sunflowers and others), cas‐ sava, nuts, dry fruits, delicatessen products, spices, wines, legumes, fruits, milk and milk de‐

© 2013 Lizárraga-Paulín et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 Lizárraga-Paulín et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

rivates [6,7], and even chocolates [8]. In order to find a solution for this problem, some organizations and institutions have purposed prevention strategies in order to reduce the risks given by this public problem especially in low-income countries, but those strategies are not enough to give a real solution to this worldwide daily problem.

The economic impacts of AF contamination can vary greatly among affected food and feed commodities. These differences include the severity of the contamination problem, the geo‐ graphic range of AF problems, the types of AF control methods available, and which sectors bear the burden of the cost of AF contamination. All of these factors affect whether AF con‐ trol methods are adopted [16]. AF and mycotoxins in general have not been widely priori‐ tized from a public health perspective in low-income countries. This is because knowledge of mycotoxins and the full range and scale of their adverse health effects is incomplete and the known risks are poorly communicated to governments in regions where the contamina‐ tion is greatest [17]. Matters that have to be considered by government to avoid diseases from aflatoxicosis are: an opportune and nonexpensive analytic detection, unifying world‐ wide government regulations, deviation of AF-contaminated commodities from the food supply, improving research on the biosynthesis and molecular biology of AF, and designing new control strategies for the abolition of AF contamination of food crops, inter alia [10].

Novel Methods for Preventing and Controlling Aflatoxins in Food: A Worldwide Daily Challenge

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/50707

95

It was established in about 1970 that fungal contamination could start in the field before har‐ vest [9]. Although the highest levels of AF are undoubtedly associated with post-harvest spoilage of food commodities stored under inappropriate conditions of water activity and temperature, the aflatoxigenic fungi have more complex ecologies [12]. Factors that influ‐ ence the incidence of fungal infection and subsequent toxin development include inverte‐ brate vectors, grain damage, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, inoculum load, substrate composition, fungal infection levels, prevalence of toxigenic strains and microbiological in‐ teractions. Insect damage on crops allows fungi to access in them, increasing the chances of

Controlling or reducing infection by regulating the factors that increase the risk of AF con‐ tamination in the field contributes extensively in managing AF. Management practices that reduce the incidence of AF contamination in the field include timely planting, maintaining optimal plant densities, proper plant nutrition, avoiding drought stress, controlling other plant pathogens, weeds and insect pests and proper harvesting [20]. Pre-harvest measures that are efficient in reducing AF levels are the same as those that will enhance yields. Crop rotation and management of crop residues also are important in controlling *A. flavus* infec‐ tion in the field. Tillage practices, fertilizer application, weed control, late season rainfall, ir‐ rigation, wind and pest vectors affect the source and level of fungal inoculum, maintaining a disease cycle in crops like maize [19, 21]. Lime application, use of farm yard manure and ce‐ real crop residues as soil amendments have shown to be effective in reducing *A. flavus* con‐ tamination as well as AF levels by 50-90%. Calcium, which is part of lime, thickens the cell wall and accelerates pod filling, while manure facilitates growth of microorganisms that

In order to minimize the levels of AF and mycotoxins in general, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina (INTA), recommends to make early plantings, to

AF contamination, especially when loose-husked maize hybrids are used [18, 19].

**3. How to prevent pre-harvest AF?**

suppress soil infections [21].
