Food
Molds that are most often found on meat and poultry are Alternaria, Aspergillus, Botrytis, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Geotrichum, Monilia, Manoscus, Mortierella, Mucor, Neurospora, Oidium, Oosproa, Penicillium, Rhizopus and Thamnidium.
Roughly 25% of the world's food is contaminated by mycotoxins according to the World Health Organization. Grains incur considerable losses both in field and storage due to pathogens and insects. Some of the pathogens and resultant mycotoxins reduce the nutritional quality of the product. Mycotoxins are toxigenic fungal compounds that can cause cancer and suppress growth.
Mycotoxins contaminate grains and other food products across the globe and can significantly impact human health. They can be found growing on grains before harvest and in storage. When ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through skin, mycotoxins may reduce appetite and general performance, and cause sickness or death in some cases.
Mold growing in or on field corn and peanuts are the ones most likely to produce aflatoxin.
Prevention of mold exposure from food is generally to not buy or to discard food that has mold growths on it. Also, mold growth in the first place can be prevented by the same concept of mold growth, assessment, and remediation that prevents air exposure. In addition, it is especially useful to clean the inside of the refrigerator, and having clean dishcloths, towels, sponges and mops.
Ruminants are considered to be resistant to the toxic effects of mycotoxins, presumably due to their superior mycotoxin-degrading microbes. This suggests that since mycotoxins are difficult to digest by human microbes due to better degradation by rumen microbes as compared to mono-gastric animals like humans. The carryover of toxins in animal food may have severe consequences on human health.
However, in China in December 2011, a scandal involving high levels of carcinogen aflatoxin M1 in mengniu brand milk was discovered due to cows eating mildewed feed.
Read more about this topic: Mold Health Issues, Exposure Sources and Prevention
Other articles related to "food, foods":
... The house-elves at Hogwarts amongst other duties provide all food to students and staff ... At meal times the food is magically transported up, giving the façade of appearing for the students ... The majority of the food prepared are traditional British dishes ...
... Baking is a food cooking method using prolonged dry heat acting by convection, and not by thermal radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes ... temperature is reached within the heating instrument, the food is placed inside and baked for a certain amount of time ... baked beans, some casseroles and pasta dishes such as lasagna, and various other foods, such as the pretzel ...
... Comfort food Fast food Junk food Natural food Organic food Slow food Whole food ...
... Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly ... While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and ... The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951 ...
... In industrial and food applications, radiation is used for sterilization of tools and equipment ... An emerging use in food production is the sterilization of food using food irradiation ... Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to destroy microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, or insects that might be present in the food ...
Famous quotes containing the word food:
“The office of the prince and that of the writer are defined and assigned as follows: the nobleman gives rank to the written work, the writer provides food for the prince.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Eclecticism is the degree zero of contemporary general culture: one listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonald’s food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and “retro” clothes in Hong Kong; knowledge is a matter for TV games. It is easy to find a public for eclectic works.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)
“Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 3:11.
John the Baptist.