Advances in Food Mycology

150 Birgitte Andersen and Ulf Thrane
Different species of Alternaria, Fusarium and Penicillium, on the other
hand, all spoil fruit and cereals, but produce species specific mycotoxins
(Table 5) and hundred mycotoxins and other biologically active
metabolites from these three genera have been characterised within
recent years (Nielsen and Smedsgaard, 2003) and it is reasonable to
expect that more than the few included in the legislation (aflatoxin,
ochratoxin, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins in cereals and patulin in
fruits) can be produced in mouldy foods.
The results presented in this study show that Alternaria and Fusarium
in fruit and cereals may pose a mycotoxin risk. During spoilage of
apples and cherries, P. expansum is known to produce patulin, which has
been incorporated in the legislation on fruit produce. However, both
Alternaria and Fusarium were able to produce additional metabolites in
mouldy fruit samples (Table 6, sample 4): alternariols, antibiotic Y and
aurofusarin. In cereals, P. verrucosum is known to produce ochratoxin A,
which has also been incorporated in the legislation on raw cereal grain.
However, Fusarium was able to produce antibiotic Y and zearalenone in
addition to ochratoxin A from P. verrucosum in mouldy wheat (Table 6,
sample 11). For these lesser known metabolites no or very limited data
are available on the toxicity on co-produced metabolites and their possible
synergistic effects, which make risk assessment in food and food production
systems difficult. In conclusion, we see the co-occurrence of
these specific Alternaria and Fusarium metabolites and their potential
toxicities as the major future challenge in food mycology.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Dr. Jens C. Frisvad for discussion of
manuscript and identification of some of the Penicillium cultures. This
work was partly supported by the Danish Ministry of Food,
Agriculture and Fisheries through the program “Food Quality with a
focus on Food Safety”, by LMC Centre for Advanced Food Studies
and by the Danish Technical Research Council through ‘Program for
Predictive Biotechnology’.
6. REFERENCES
Abildgren, M. P., Lund, F., Thrane, U., and Elmholt, S., 1987, Czapek-Dox agar containing
iprodione and dicloran as a selective medium for the isolation of Fusarium
species, Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 5:83-86.