Jagger Harvey, the director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Post-Harvest Loss, is editing a special issue of the journal “Foods,” titled “Safeguarding the Global Food Supply: Advances in Mycotoxin Prevention, Surveillance and Mitigation”
“While research and development efforts are successfully increasing production, improving processing and expanding the availability of food globally, contamination with fungal toxins (mycotoxins) is increasingly recognized as a specter threatening global food and nutritional security. Food safety is a critical element of food security, and advances in avoiding and mitigating mycotoxin contamination represent a key component of this.,” said Harvey, who heads the lab out of the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University.
“Mycotoxins pose a grave threat to agriculture, health, trade, and the environment, with aflatoxin alone estimated to threaten one quarter of the global food supply and the wellbeing of 4.5 billion people. U.S. corn producers could lose $1.68 billion, while stringent European regulations cost the African countries $670 million in export losses each year.
A sustainable solution must include information, practices, and technologies that can substantially reduce mycotoxin accumulation in the food supply, along global food system value chains, he said.
The special issue will include technical publications on biophysical and socioeconomic innovations and insights into mycotoxin prevention, surveillance, and mitigation, and an overview of how they can work together to improve food safety and security.
Information about submissions, requirements and deadlines can be found on the journal’s website.