**6. Conclusions and future perspectives**

reader is directed for specific insights [84, 118, 119, 127, 128]. Despite the many publications on this topic, this promising approach is still at a research level and far from an immediate outcome and application in practice for mycotoxin detoxification of food at industrial level. More research is needed to fully understand mycotoxin biotransformation mechanisms, to evaluate the toxicity of metabolites and the feasibility of application in wheat industry. All these topics must be considered and evaluated keeping in mind the existing regulatory issues

Physical decontamination reducing mycotoxins in wheat can be carried out during industrial processing. For the wheat milling industry, the precise knowledge of the fate of mycotoxins during milling is vital and may provide a sound technical basis to conform to legislation requirements, support risk management and regulatory bodies in order to reduce human and animal exposure to mycotoxins, and reduce the risk of severe adverse market and trade repercussions. Wheat sorting, cleaning, debranning, and milling influence mycotoxin repar‐ titioning in wheat milling fractions entering the food chain. The effects of wheat milling and thermal processes on the fate of mycotoxins have been extensively studied [8, 33, 105–112, 121, 129–133]. Published data confirm that milling reduces mycotoxin concentration in frac‐ tions used for human consumption, but concentrates mycotoxins into fractions commonly used as animal feed. Physical and mechanical processes, such as sorting and cleaning prior to milling, reduce mycotoxin contamination in wheat by removing kernels with extensive mold growth, broken kernels, fine materials, and dust. The results indicate that the effect of pre‐ milling processes and the efficiency of mycotoxin removal are extremely variable. The concen‐ tration of mycotoxins in cleaned wheat ranges from 7 to 63% for DON, from 7 to almost 100% for NIV, and from 7 to 40% for ZEA, of the contamination level in unclean grains [28, 134, 135]. A reduction of 62 and 53% of T‐2 and HT‐2, respectively, has been reported in wheat grains after cleaning [136]. Several factors may be involved in this response, such as the initial con‐ dition of the grains, the type and extent of the contamination, and the type and efficiency of the cleaning process. Debranning before cleaning is used in industrial processing to enhance the milling performance of wheat and the degree of refinement of flour and semolina [137]. Debranning before milling further reduces the level of mycotoxin content in wheat grain. As for the cleaning and sorting procedures, the effect of debranning and the efficiency of myco‐ toxin removal are extremely variable. A reduction of DON in debranned wheat ranging from 15 to 78% has been reported [134, 138–140]. Despite the high variability in removal efficiency of mycotoxin, overall results indicate that the physical processes that are carried out before milling (such as sorting, cleaning, and debranning) are very efficient methods to reduce wheat mycotoxin content before milling. As in cleaning and debranning, in the milling process there is no step that destroys mycotoxins; however, mycotoxin contamination may be redistributed

Overall results regarding the efficacy of mycotoxin reduction/repartition wheat industrial processing showed a high variability and sometimes appear conflicting. This is related to the type of mycotoxins, the level and extent of fungal contamination, and a failure to under‐ stand the complexity of the milling technology. The knowledge of mycotoxin repartitioning in wheat milling fractions is largely limited to DON, using different approaches (artificially vs. naturally contaminated wheat; wide range of mycotoxin contamination levels; laboratory;

for food safety.

238 Wheat Improvement, Management and Utilization

in milling fractions [141–143].

Mycotoxins in wheat represent a significant health risk to animal health and significant issues for a safe food supply chain. Regarding this topic, mycotoxin regulations have been estab‐ lished in more than 100 countries, and maximum acceptable limits have been fixed for food and feed. Mycotoxin co‐contamination in wheat is a reality, and future attention should be paid not only to the mycotoxins believed to be the most likely to occur, but also to emerging and modified mycotoxins. The co‐occurrence of several mycotoxins, with specific chemical traits and modes of action, is a serious health problem because of potential additive and/or synergistic effects. The impact of mycotoxins entering the food chain could increase in the next future. Most predictions indicate that the climate change scenarios, with global warming, could affect agriculture and increase the threat from fungal invasion of crops. Regarding this topic, there is a need to improve predictive models for mycotoxin contamination in wheat, integrating field parameters and weather variables.

Strategies to mitigate and reduce mycotoxin contamination in wheat include approaches at pre‐ and postharvest levels. The efficacy of each mitigating approach is highly variable depending on several factors, such as the type of approach, the type and level of mycotoxin contamination, the crop variety and agronomic practices, storage condition, etc. Integrating as many management options as possible is the key to minimize the risk of mycotoxin contamination in wheat and wheat products. However, it must be underlined that even if pre‐ and postharvest practices can be controlled, there is an unpredictable factor that influ‐ ence mycotoxin occurrence in wheat, namely the climatic and environmental conditions. Therefore, despite efforts to control and reduce fungal and mycotoxin contamination, wheat mycotoxin contamination is unavoidable and unpredictable and postharvest decontaminat‐ ing approaches can offer the last resort. The use of these strategies must not be detrimental for the wheat quality and safety, and must comply with the existing regulatory requirements.

The high variability in the efficacy of mitigating strategies increases awareness and ongoing surveillance for mycotoxins. At industrial level, an effective approach to manage the myco‐ toxin challenge in wheat requires regular, effective, economical, and straight forward wheat sampling and analytical diagnostic tools which can be used to monitor mycotoxin contami‐ nation, rapidly identify material below specified standards, and make justified management decisions regarding what to do with wheat lots that may be contaminated with mycotoxins. Sampling is the greatest source of error in quantifying mycotoxin contamination because of the difficulty in obtaining samples from large grain consignments and of the uneven distribu‐ tion of mycotoxins within a commodity [147]. The Commission Regulation 401/2006/EC pro‐ vides precise details regarding the methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of the levels of mycotoxins in foodstuffs [148]. The development of rapid methods for use in the field represents a future challenge, but such methods would allow for "decision‐making" regarding the safe use of wheat and wheat by‐products. Moreover, more research on the development and application of multi‐mycotoxin analytical methods should be encouraged in order to obtain a more accurate picture of the extent of multi‐mycotoxin contamination.
