Toxins Webinar | Evaluating Mycotoxins in Food Safety: Toxic Effects, Presence in Food and Biomonitoring – Strategies of SDG-Agenda 2030

Toxins, SDG, Food, Toxic Effects, Mycotoxins, Evaluation, Strategies

Webinar Information

Toxins Webinar

Evaluating Mycotoxins in Food Safety: Toxic Effects, Presence in Food and Biomonitoring - Strategies of SDG-Agenda 2030

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi from Fusarium, Alternaria and Penicillium spp. spread naturally worldwide. Mycotoxins are also natural contaminants present in food and feed and several health problems have been evidenced not only for humans, but also for animals. Oral exposure of mycotoxins in humans and animals occurs through food although levels found are low and acute effects are scarce. Evaluation of excretion by biomonitoring can help to evaluate the risk assessment and exposure to these compounds. Chronic exposure effects are of great concern which really pose a significant risk to consumers who are eating these products. Several studies have shown mycotoxins are capable of causing various forms of systemic toxicity such as neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, mammalian cytotoxicity, etc. Mycotoxins, once in contact with living organisms, are able to promote an imbalance between the antioxidant protective shield and free radicals, causing chemical damage to protein, lipid and DNA structures, changes in cell cycle distribution, mitochondrial membrane potential disturbances, micronucleus induction and cell death. The use of natural antioxidants could be useful in limiting and/or preventing the toxic effects of mycotoxins and then it is reasonable to think that the intake of antioxidants can represent a concrete strategy to completely inhibit or at least reduce the toxicity of mycotoxins. Several of these strategies as well as the prevention of mycotoxins production are englobed in implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the Agenda 2030 in the Food Safety.

In this webinar, it is intended to project the SDG belonging to the Agenda 2030 by presenting some examples of natural antioxidants present in food which have demonstrated to alleviate the effects of mycotoxins in vitro; the study of the increased presence of mycotoxins in wheat associated to climate change and, the results obtained in biomonitorig mycotoxins in children´s urine.

Date: 27 November 2020

Time: 9:00am CET | 2:00pm CDT | 4:00pm UTC+8

Chair: Associate Professor Ana Juan- García

Webinar secretariat: toxins.webinar@mdpi.com

Webinar ID: 886 5296 8196

Ana Juan-García

Ana Juan-García is Associate Professor of Toxicology at University of Valencia in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Public Health, Food Science, Toxicology and Forensic Medicine. She holds a degree in Pharmacy and received her European PhD in Food Science (with two training in Italy and Ireland) both by University of Valencia. She was Postdoc Researcher at Purdue University (IN, USA) for two years with a Fulbright Grant and more recently Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (MA, USA). She serves as Purdue Alumni Ambassador in Spain since 2014. She has served as speaker or formed part of Scientific Committees in different conferences. She is member of different toxicology societies, Spanish Society of Toxicology (AETOX), European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV) and Society of Toxicologist (Full member); and those related to flow cytometry: International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) and European Society of Clinical Cell Analysis (ESCCA). Prof. Juan-García focuses most of her research in toxic effects of compounds/contaminants present in food and feed, and more specifically with pesticides, antibiotics and mycotoxins. To highlight that her research effort is addressed on evaluating mycotoxins toxicity through majorly in vitro but also in vivo and in silico assays by using different techniques and biological models. All this has brought her to participate in more than 100 posters, presentations and communications at national and international conferences and to serve as Guest Editor in Special Issues. She is co-author of several scientific publications on ISI-indexed international journals with an H-index 20 and 1185 citations.

Cristina Juan

Cristina Juan is Associate Professor of Food Science at University of Valencia in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Public Health, Food Science, Toxicology and Forensic Medicine. She holds a degree in Pharmacy and received her European PhD in Food Science both by University of Valencia. She was Postdoc Researcher at “Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” in Italy for two years with Prof. Alberto Ritieni. She has served as speaker or formed part of Scientific Committees in different conferences. She is member of Spanish Society of Toxicology (AETOX) and member of the Spanish Emerging Risk Network in collaboration with the Emerging Risks Exchange Network (EREN) of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Prof. Juan focuses most of her research in evaluating the risk of compounds/contaminants present in food and feed, and more specifically with veterinary residues and mycotoxins. Her active research concerns to develop and performance analytical methods to quantify and identify the presence of mycotoxins in different matrices (food, feed, biological matrices and culture cells) using different mass spectrometry equipment (QqQ, Qtrap and QTOF) coupled to or LC or GC. She has wide experience in the analysis of nutrients components (carotenoids or polyphenols between others), and contaminants in food, feed and biological matrices (urine and milk), such as residue of veterinary contaminants. All this has brought her to participate in more than 100 posters, presentations and communications at national and international conferences and to serve as Guest Editor in Special Issues. She is co-author of more than 50 scientific publications on ISI-indexed international journals with an H-index 24 and 1469 citations.

Oana Stanciu

Oana Stanciu is Lecturer of Bromatology, Hygiene and Nutrition at “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in the Faculty of Pharmacy. She followed a Master’s degree in “Drug and Environmental Toxicology” and she holds an international co-supervised PhD degree in Pharmacy and Food Science at “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca and University of Valencia (Spain), defending her thesis with the academic title summa cum laude. She obtained two Doctoral Research Grants and she benefited from two ERASMUS+ mobility fellowships at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Toxicology at the Faculty of Pharmacy from the University of Valencia. Also, she received the Young Researcher Prize - Healthy Nutrition/Food Section at the 1^st International Conference of LIFE Sciences and Technology for WELLBEING in Romania. Her research activities have been situated in the fields of food safety and nutrition. She published the first data about emerging mycotoxins in cereals from Romania and the first studies about the risk associated with the exposure to both regulated and unregulated Fusarium mycotoxins for the Romanian population. In the present, she is also Postdoc Reaseacher of the Romanian Ministry of Education, working on the exposure assessment of Romanian population to multiple mycotoxins, using human biomonitoring. She published more than 30 abstracts in book of abstracts and she is co-author of various articles published in ISI-indexed international journals with an H-index 5 and more than 200 citations. She has contributed to 5 book chapters published in national publishing houses.

Liliana J. G. Silva

Liliana J. G. Silva is a Researcher at the Associated Laboratory LAQV-REQUIMTE, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, developing research work in the evaluation of food and environmental contaminants. Namely, she has been involved in the determination of mycotoxins and other contaminants (PAHs, pesticides, cocidiostatics, antibiotics) in foods and biological fluids and evaluation of human exposure. Moreover, she investigates the occurrence of human pharmaceuticals in the environment and their bioacccumulation and metabolization by the aquatic biota.

She received her PhD in 2008 from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, in Nutrition and Food Chemistry. As part of this European PhD, she did, during different periods, trainings in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Public Health, Food Science, Toxicology and Forensic Medicine at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia, Spain.

She published 1 book, 5 book chapters, as well as 35 article publications in indexed international journals, with a high impact factor, in the areas of Food Science & Technology, Analytical Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences. For the total of 29 publications and, according to the Web of Science database, she has a h-index of 16 and a total of 745 citations. She has participated in several national and international scientific meetings delivering 7 oral communications by invitation, 22 oral communications and 37 poster communications. She was a member and collaborated on the organizing committee of 7 scientific meetings with an impact on the national and international community.

She has participated in several scientific projects funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, developing, optimizing and applying analytical methodologies in the research areas that she develops.

Program

Speaker/Presentation	Time (CET)
Opening of Webinar Ana Juan-García	09.00am
"In vitro toxic effects of mycotoxins alleviated with bioactive compounds present in food - Strategies of proximity consumption." Cristina Juan and Ana Juan-García	09.10am
“Fusarium mycotoxins in wheat and its derivatives – A Romanian perspective advised by climate changes.” Oana Stanciu	09.50am
“Biomonitoring of Ochratoxin A in children's urine.” Liliana da Silva	10.30am
Closing of webinar. Ana Juan-García	11.10am

Webinar Content

On Friday, 27 November 2020, MDPI and Toxins organized the second webinar on Toxins, entitled: “Evaluating Mycotoxins in Food Safety: Toxic Effects, Presence in Food and Biomonitoring - Strategies of SDG-Agenda 2030”.

Prof. Dr. Ana Juan-García was Chair of the webinar and also gave the first presentation on research that she and Prof. Dr. Cristina Juan worked on, entitled "In vitro toxic effects of mycotoxins alleviated with bioactive compounds present in food - Strategies of proximity consumption".

Dr. Oana Stanciu was the second speaker of the webinar and talked about Fusarium mycotoxins in wheat and its derivatives – A Romanian perspective advised by climate changes.

The last presentation touched upon the topic of biomonitoring of Ochratoxin A in children's urine and was given by Prof. Dr. Liliana da Silva.

Their presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the chair. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found here on Sciforum website. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on Toxins, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.

Relevant Special Issues

Evaluation of Cytotoxicity and Cytoprotection Effects of Natural Toxins
Guest Editor: Prof. Dr. Ana Juan-García
Submission Deadline: 31 May 2021

Mycotoxins Study: Toxicology, Identification and Control
Guest Editor. Prof. Dr. Cristina Juan Garcí
Submission Deadline: 30 November 2020