Mycotoxicoses, In Vitro and In Vivo: Conjecture-Hypothesis-Validation

The ultimate goal of food safety research is to ensure the quality and safety of the food supply. This includes the safety of both animal feeds and human foods. Within the concept of “biodeterioration”, the impairment of human and animal health through the consumption of fungal metabolites in the food supply seems an appropriate, if not the ultimate, subject for study. Our health, and that of the animals upon which we depend, is clearly an area of great public concern. This concern creates the social and political force which sustains the monetary support of all professional scientists who study the biological activity of fungal metabolites which contaminate foods and feeds. Unfortunately, the public’s concern for food and feed safety is sometimes forgotten or avoided by scientists who enjoy doing experimental research. Few would disagree, that solving basic problems is important, however, the consumer’s concern is the applied problem -food and feed safety. In the field of mycotoxicology, it is difficult to maintain focus on this applied problem because the chemical and biological diversity of the subject matter reveals an infinite number of exciting and rewarding areas for basic research, while the epidemiological database that supports the hypothesis that fungal toxins in the food supply are a threat to American consumers is extremely limited or non-existent (Food and Chemical News, 1986).