Climate change, environmental degradation threaten cereal production and world food security. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) data alarms that by 2050, world annual demand for maize, rice and wheat is expected to reach some 3.3 billion tonnes, or 800 million tonnes more than 2014¿s record combined harvest. However, climate change could have catastrophic effects on wheat yields and reduce maize yields in Africa by 20 percent. In Asia, rising sea levels threaten rice production in major river deltas.
Global warming will impact not only the reducing yields but also the food and feed safety, in fact the mycotoxins being considered one of the most important hazards linked to the climate change.
These reasons lead scholars to focus their research on mycotoxin analysis methods and stem the spread of contamination by these metabolites.
Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the presence of mycotoxigenic fungi and them mycotoxins in cereals by using advanced molecular and analytical techniques.
HPLC-MS/MS analysis is able to determine simultaneously the presence of different metabolites. Therefore, it can be applied to analyse mycotoxins, including those defined as emerging, whose contamination limits are not reported in European directives. PCR method is highly specific in detecting fungal species through the amplification of specie-specific and mycotoxin pathway genes.
The combination of these two techniques will provide a tight method of investigation on the contamination of maize, rice and wheat.
Exposure to mycotoxins in Europe is relatively low due to strict monitoring and control activities, but consumers and farm animals in some countries may be more exposed to these toxins, climate change makes this even more problematic. In some countries, where there are inadequate infrastructures and controls, the consumer is commonly exposed to a heap of totally unacceptable contaminants. Improving food security worldwide requires countries to be able to play their own roles, so what FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) does at national level is to work with national stakeholders to ensure effective prevention and control programs are in place of mycotoxins, including, for example, surveillance activities. The activity of data collection, skills and structures in Europe helps to establish food safety standards for the whole world. At the international level, the FAO, in collaboration with the OMS (Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità), provides neutral and independent scientific advice that is to the development of international standards by the Commission of the Codex Alimentarius, which is the reference body for food security in international trade. EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) opinions, provided in the form of risk assessments, are used by the European Commission when deciding on its position at Codex Alimentarius meetings. The contribution of the proposed research in terms of data is very important. Knowledge and scientific advances represent a pool of resources for countries around the world, in order to understand and manage the potential risks of mycotoxins in cereals. The research is aimed at developing tools to assess the risk of mycotoxins, from the way they are synthesized by microorganisms to their toxicity for some species, mostly farm animals and humans, but also how they are present in the environment in the form of mixtures. Mycotoxin contamination will remain a serious global criticality until countries are able to implement integrated and sustainable solutions, suited to their context. The world community has an essential role to play in facilitating this. This work aimed at extending mycotoxin knowledge can be used to train future risk assessors in Europe, but also in developing countries, potentially bringing them data, models and knowledge alongside their risk assessment practices. Working synergistically between national, regional and international dimensions, we will be able to better understand the challenges presented by climate change and reduce the risks of mycotoxins for food reserves in the world.