Abstract

MARTINEZ MIRANDA, María Marcela; VARGAS DEL RIO, Liliana María  and  GOMEZ QUINTERO, Verónica María. AFLATOXINS: INCIDENCE, IMPACT ON HEALTH, CONTROL AND PREVENTION. Biosalud [online]. 2013, vol.12, n.2, pp.89-109. ISSN 1657-9550.

Aflatoxins are secondary toxic metabolites produced mainly by Aspergillus flavus. The need to investigate these toxins has grown in the last years due to their high influence in massive food intake and due to their toxicity. In order to go deeper in the knowledge of aflatoxins, this article presents a general review of studies that report their presence in food in Latin America, their impact on animal and human health, the Colombian and international legislation of total or individual aflatoxins, control processes, prevention, decontamination and detoxification, and finally the main methods for their analysis. It was found that in Latin America there is an important presence of aflatoxins, especially B1 aflatoxin in products of high consumption. Research in this field has contributed to the development of physical, chemical and biological methods of aflatoxins decontamination and detoxification, although these methods could increase the production costs. To the same extend, studies to detect and quantify these mycotoxins have driven to the creation of reliable analytical methods being the High Performance Liquid Chromatography the most used in the last 30 years. According to has been mentioned above, it is relevant to implement measures to prevent the growth of aflatoxin producing fungi in processes of farming, harvesting, recollecting, storing and transporting thus, reducing their presence in food. Finally, the negative impact in human and animal health, especially because of its carcinogenicity, shows the importance of carrying out systemic research in Colombia to understand the forms of production and action of these toxins in order to create more solid scientific foundations to prevent and control them through rules that regulate their concentration in different food matrices, warning that currently in Colombia there are no resolutions of mandatory compliance.

Keywords : aflatoxins; incidence; health impact; prevention and control; legislation on food; decontamination; analysis.

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