What are Mycotoxins and Why Should I Be Wary of Them?

I know we all like to eat food not only because we need it to survive, but also because it is supposed to taste good! Any pets or livestock we have, of course, also need food to survive.

But we want to make sure that all the food is safe. Now, you might be saying, “yes, of course,” but what I mean is free of mold and ensuring that the way it is stored does not encourage the growth of mold. This may seem like a no-brainer, but mold is bad not just because it means crops are bad, but if it is overlooked and is the wrong type of mold, it could be deadly, cause cancer, or cause other major health problems.

You may not know what makes mold deadly on food, feed, and crops, but they are called mycotoxins. These toxins are the byproduct of certain fungai, which can grow on food or crops. The most common mycotoxins that pose health threats to humans and livestock are aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, patulin, fumonisins, zearalenone and, nivalenol/deoxynivalenol. Aflatoxins are one of the most prevalent mycotoxins because these molds can grow in hay, grains, decaying vegetation, and soil, which allows them easy access to our food supply.

Okay, we know what they are now, so how do we monitor these toxins and ensure that food is safe? First, before you eat food, you want to make sure it is not moldy and smells okay, of course. However, there are ways to monitor the mycotoxins present within different foods utilizing the ISOLUTE® Myco columns.

So, how do these ISOLUTE® Myco columns work and what sets them apart from other columns? These columns are designed to be a “catch and release” style clean-up of mycotoxins prior to analysis by LC-MS/MS. But that isn’t even the best part. The ISOLUTE® Myco sorbent is optimized to enable the extraction of a wide range of mycotoxins from a wide range of food products. This makes it very easy to extract virtually any type of mycotoxin from any type of food using the same type of column every time.

To learn more about the variety of matrices and mycotoxins that can be extracted using ISOLUTE® Myco columns, feel free to click on the download button below.

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