Unraveling Interactions in Mycotoxin Mixtures in Foods for Enhanced Safety

In the field of food safety, mycotoxins - secondary metabolites produced by various fungi - are a persistent threat due to their frequent presence as complex mixtures in many food products. Historically, research and regulation have focused on individual mycotoxins, yielding valuable information on their toxicological profiles. However, this approach overlooks the reality that consumers are often exposed to multiple mycotoxins simultaneously, an issue that presents additional risks due to unknown or unpredictable interactions. These interactions, which can be synergistic or antagonistic, add an unaddressed layer of complexity to food safety and risk assessment. Despite advances in detection technologies and isolated studies on single compounds, the combined structural and toxicological characteristics of mycotoxin mixtures remain insufficiently explored.

Recent research demonstrates that mycotoxins rarely act alone in nature, and their collective presence in food can alter their bioactivity, impacting human health through unique biochemical pathways. Advanced analytical techniques, such as high-resolution mass spectrometry and next-generation bioactivity assays, have started to uncover these complex interactions. Nonetheless, current knowledge is limited by a lack of systematic studies investigating how specific mycotoxin combinations influence toxicity at molecular, cellular, and organism levels. This limitation leaves a critical gap in developing comprehensive food safety standards, as conventional regulatory frameworks typically fail to reflect the cumulative risks posed by multi-mycotoxin exposures.

This Research Topic aims to advance scientific understanding of mycotoxin mixture interactions in foods, with a particular emphasis on their structural and functional properties and the health implications of their combined effects. The goal is to unravel the mechanisms underlying synergistic and antagonistic toxicological interactions, as well as to develop improved analytical approaches for detecting and quantifying mixtures. By gathering research that addresses both the characterization of these mixtures and their biological impact, the topic seeks to generate actionable insights for enhancing food safety policy, more accurate risk assessments, and innovative mitigation strategies.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Structural and functional analysis of mycotoxin mixtures

- Analytical advances for simultaneous detection of multiple mycotoxins

- Mechanistic insights into synergistic and antagonistic effects

- Disruption of biochemical and cellular pathways by mycotoxin combinations

- Models for risk assessment and regulatory evaluation of mycotoxin interactions

- Strategies for prevention, mitigation, and regulatory management of co-contaminated foods.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Mycotoxins, Food safety, Metabolomics

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.