Say "no" to mildew of grain and oil 25% of grain and oil are contaminated with mycotoxins

As we all know, moldy food can't be eaten. Moldy peanuts, moldy corn, moldy rice, once accidentally eaten, light vomiting, heavy death. Because these moldy foods contain a kind of food safety "invisible killer"-mycotoxin.

Since the ergot poisoning in Europe in the 11th century, humans have seen the harm of mycotoxins for the first time. Since then, scientists have officially launched a protracted war against mycotoxins. However, mankind has not completely defeated it. In 2012, with the strong support of relevant government departments, the Institute of Agricultural products processing of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, together with Jiangnan University, Shandong Agricultural University, Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Oil crop Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, launched a public welfare industry (agricultural) research project, "Research on mycotoxin control technology of grain and oil", and once again declared war on mycotoxins.

Today, with the success of the experimental demonstration of the integrated technology of grain and oil mycotoxin control developed by the project team, human beings can finally have the opportunity to say "no" to grain and oil mildew and take the initiative in this "war of resistance."

Current situation

Mildew produces mycotoxins about 25% of the world's grain and oil are contaminated by it.

What is mycotoxin? How did it come about? Liu Yang, a researcher and chief scientist of the Agricultural products processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who has been engaged in mycotoxin research for a long time, explained to reporters: "mycotoxins are produced by mildew, and they are secondary metabolites produced by fungi. It mainly includes aflatoxin, zearalenone, vomiting toxin and so on. From corn, wheat, peanuts to fruits, seasonings, traditional Chinese medicine, feed, milk, mycotoxins are almost everywhere in our production and life. "

As a highly toxic and carcinogenic toxin, mycotoxin can contaminate almost all kinds of food and feed agricultural products. According to the statistics of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, about 25% of the world's grain and oil is contaminated by mycotoxins every year. In recent years, the contamination of mycotoxins in agricultural products has been a hot spot of food safety all over the world.

In China, the pollution status of mycotoxins is also not optimistic. According to reports, due to the influence of individual planting and storage methods of farmers, as well as the high temperature and humidity weather in the Yangtze River Basin and South China, China's corn, wheat, rice, peanuts, dried fruits, Chinese herbal medicines and other products are seriously polluted by mycotoxins, with a cumulative loss of about 31 million tons of grain and oil each year. It can be said that the pollution of mycotoxins in grain and oil products has become an important hidden danger of food security and food safety in our country, which is seriously harmful to people's health.

Due to the serious harmfulness of mycotoxin, countries all over the world have not only formulated the corresponding limit standards and regulations, but also the limit standard value continues to decrease and become more and more strict. During the 10 years from 2001 to 2011, among the violations of food exported to the European Union, 28.6% of the mycotoxins exceeded the standard, which was a high proportion in a single incident.

Grain and oil mycotoxin pollution occurs in every link of planting, harvesting, warehousing and processing. It has become an important bottleneck factor restricting China's agricultural production, economic development and international trade, seriously affecting our food security and food security. It is urgent to prevent and control the pollution of mycotoxins scientifically and effectively. " Liu Yang said.

Integration

Prevention and control is indispensable in every link of planting, storage and processing.

"We have developed some prevention and control technologies in all aspects of grain and oil production, but the next step is how to integrate and implement these technology systems." Liu Yang said: different from previous studies on the prevention and control of mycotoxins, the project focuses on grain and oil crops such as wheat, corn, rice, and peanuts, and systematically carries out research on the whole industry chain control technology of grain and oil mycotoxins around the links of field, harvest, storage, and processing. "every step in the prevention and control of mycotoxins cannot be missed."

At present, it is the peanut harvest season in the south. The reporter saw at the test and demonstration base of the specialized peanut planting cooperative in Sui Garden, Yicheng Town, Zhangshu City, Jiangxi Province, that compared with the susceptible peanuts harvested by farmers in the fields, all the peanuts in the experimental plot were full and clean. Shang Bo, an experimenter at the processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said: "the peanuts in this field were treated with our own aflatoxin biocontrol agent during the flowering and needle dropping period." After control, after several years of continuous testing, there was basically no aflatoxin detected in harvested peanuts. " Shangbo said that this biocontrol agent can be used not only on peanuts, but also on corn.

In addition to the field control of planting, scientists have also developed a number of low-cost and easy-to-use tricks in the storage of grain and oil. The dry storage of peanuts has always been a headache for farmers, but in the warehouse of the Suiyuan Cooperative, the reporter saw that two drying equipment designed and developed by the Nanjing Agricultural Mechanization Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture were working nervously. "this kind of drying equipment can effectively help farmers solve the problem of poor drying of peanuts, rice, corn and wheat in overcast and rainy weather. Not only can the equipment be dismantled and transported, but the price is about 40,000 yuan, which is completely acceptable to farmers." Dr. Fu Xiaoji of Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences said. In storage and packaging, the cooperative uses a new type of light-proof vacuum-packed plastic bags, as long as peanuts are sealed in plastic bags, even if they are kept for a year, they will not be affected by damp and mildew.

The prevention and control of mycotoxin in the processing process is also a difficulty. "We have specially developed technologies, products and equipment for the separation and removal of contaminated raw materials, processing and removal, and biosorption to degrade and remove mycotoxins." Xing Fuguo, an associate researcher at the processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters that every technology in the processing link is accompanied by the development of new equipment or new products, which will really bring high-end technology to the ground.

If the product contains mycotoxin, how to detect and detoxify it? Don't worry, scientists also have an idea. In the laboratory of the project team located at the base of Yicheng Town, the researchers demonstrated to reporters a detoxification test for grain, oil and food that exceeded the standard. Only the researchers dripped the mycotoxin detoxification enzyme preparation into the sample contaminated by mycotoxin, and detected it with a rapid detector one hour later. The final test data showed that even if the mycotoxin in the sample exceeded the standard by 5 times, the toxin content was reduced to below the national limit standard after 1 hour.

Promotion

The integrated technology is easy to learn and easy to use. The cost of the equipment is not high.

Deng Genqing, 50, is the person in charge of Jiangxi Xiangcheng Natural Food Co., Ltd., and the chairman of Suiyuan Peanut Professional Cooperative. Since 2012, he began to cooperate with the project team and became the first direct beneficiary of prevention and control integration technology.

"there are many Rain Water in the south, and the annual peanut harvest season is my biggest headache. In the processing process, how to prevent and control aflatoxin is also a difficult problem, which directly affects the quality of our peanut oil products. " Deng Genqing told reporters that for peanut processing enterprises, aflatoxin has always been a strong rival, one link beat it, other links up again, it is very difficult to prevent and control. Today, biocontrol agents are used in Deng Genqing's fields, drying equipment and vacuum plastic bags are used in the warehouse, and a series of special equipment such as moldy peanut sorting machine, detoxification machine and detector are used in the processing workshop. "now, with a complete set of supporting technology, the quality of my peanuts is fully guaranteed and the products are better to sell."

"judging from the results of the experiments and demonstrations over the past four years, these technologies and equipment are very easy to use, and the cost of actual promotion is not high." Xing Fuguo told reporters that only take the biocontrol agent used in the planting link as an example, the cost per mu of land is only 6 yuan, and this kind of bacterial agent is effective for many years. "in addition, this bacterial agent is developed by local fungi as raw materials, are 'indigenous' in the original place of residence, and there is no hidden danger of alien species invasion." Xing Fuguo added half-jokingly.

Similarly, the price of peanut drying and ventilation equipment is only about 40,000 yuan, while the vacuum plastic bag in the storage link costs 3 yuan and can be stored for more than one year, and the plastic bag can be used repeatedly for many years. "for farmers, these technologies are easy to learn and operate, and as long as each link is implemented in accordance with the standards, mycotoxins can be effectively prevented and controlled." Deng Genqing said with emotion.

Mycotoxins are everywhere. Its prevention and control has a bearing on the food security and food security of our more than one billion people. In this battle to 'block' mycotoxins, we still have a lot of work to do and many difficult problems to overcome. " Speaking of future scientific research work, Liu Yang hopes to speed up the popularization, application and popularization of these efficient and mature technologies, so as to make contributions to ensuring China's food safety, food security, and the export of grain and oil products.