A new article published in PLOS Pathogens lead by Dr Neriman Yilmaz from the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria highlights why mycotoxins remain a persistent threat to global food safety and security.

Titled “Mycotoxins: An ongoing challenge to food safety and security,” the paper was co-authored with Dr Carol Verheecke-Vaessen (Magan Centre of Applied Mycology, Cranfield University, UK, and Dr Chibundu Ezekiel (BOKU University, Austria). It explores how fungal diversity, climate change and agricultural practices continue to drive contamination in food and feed, despite decades of monitoring and regulation.

The authors emphasize that mycotoxin contamination affects up to 80% of global food supplies, often as complex “mycotoxin cocktails,” and remains a leading cause of food recalls worldwide. In Africa, the economic and health impacts are particularly severe, with millions of people chronically exposed.

The article presents an integrated One Health framework to reduce contamination, promote sustainable agricultural practices and align food safety strategies with planetary boundaries. The figure illustrating these links was created by Matt Jackson in collaboration with Dr Yilmaz.

Dr Yilmaz noted that the collaboration began at the Medical Mycology Forum in Cape Town in 2024, where a conversation with Prof. Joseph Heitman inspired the project. “This work grew naturally from shared ideas across Africa and Europe,” she says. “We wanted to show that mycotoxin contamination is not just a food problem. It’s a global health and sustainability issue.”

The study was partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Mycobiomics project.

Read the article here: PLOS Pathogens – Mycotoxins: An ongoing challenge to food safety and security.

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