Strategies to reduce mycotoxins in grain side product streams enabling their reintroduction into the food value chain

Description

Wheat is one of our key staple foods worldwide and offers high nutritional value, especially when consumed in the form of whole grain. Food safety has become a major challenge in crops in recent years: an estimated 25% of all global crops are affected by moulds1-2. Certain moulds produce mycotoxins, toxic compounds that are chemically stable and survive food processing. Their physiological effects upon consumption range from acute poisoning to immune deficiency or cancer. In general, degree of contamination goes down from outer to inner kernel layers3. This is why even today white and medium-white flour are primarily produced despite the development of sensorially desirable whole grain products and why wheat bran is mostly used as animal feed or sometimes burnt. Our team consisting of researchers from ICBT and ILGI will work on developing solutions to reduce mycotoxins in grain through functional microorganisms and tailored enzymes combined with novel processing approaches and show the validity of the result through sophisticated analysis. As a result, the safe use of whole grain and wheat bran with their significant health-beneficial components will be enabled. In order to reach a broad audience, the results will be shared with the public, included in lectures and published in scientific peer-reviewed journals.