Current methods for mycotoxins analysis and innovative strategies for their reduction in cereals: An overview

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by moulds in food that are considered a substantial issue in the context offood safety, due to their acute and chronic toxic effects on animals and humans. Therefore, new accurate methods for theiridentification and quantification are constantly developed in order to increase the performance of extraction, improve theaccurac y of identification and reduce the limit of detection. At the same time, several industrial practices have shown the abilityto reduce the level of mycotoxin contamination in food. In particular, a decrease in the amount of mycotoxins could resultfrom standard processes naturally used for food processing or by procedures strategically introduced during processing, withthe specific aim of reducing the amount of mycotoxins. In this review, the current methods adopted for accurate analyses ofmycotoxins in cereals (aflatoxins, ochratoxins, trichothecenes, fumonisins) are discussed. In addition, both conventional andinnovative strategies adopted to obtain safer finished products from common cereals intended for human consumption will beexplored and analysed.