MyToolBox

As a large pasta/bakery-producer, BARILLA is particularly interested in the reduction of mycotoxins before and during milling, as well as during thermal processing. A PhD student at BOKU has dedicated his research to these aspects of mycotoxin reduction strategies. During a visit of the BARILLA facilities, early March 2017, the BOKU delegation, consisting of Prof. Rudolf Krska, Dr. Franz Berthiller, Dr. Alexandra Malachova and David Stadler, and Dr. Michele Suman & Francesca Lambertini (BARILLA) discussed the experimental design and next steps of MyToolBox regarding these post-harvest reduction strategies. 

A very successful focus group meeting was held on Feb 20^th at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam bringing together those project partners delivering the e-ToolBox platform with potential end-users. Partners from RIKILT and IRIS involved in conceptualisation and design of the platform, presented their ideas to a group of end-users from UK, Austria, Netherlands, Serbia and Ukraine.

Several clinical studies from around the world show that a daily consumption of whole grain components can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and the development of diabetes, in addition also to a reduction in the risk of cancer and mortality. At the same time food based on grains (e.g. pasta, bread, bakery products) account for the largest contribution to mycotoxin exposure in all age classes, in particular due to the mycotoxins produced by Fusarium spp. Within post-harvest interventions devoted to minimize mycotoxins impact with respect to diet intake, one of the first effective actions is to integrate novel down-stream processing approaches. In the first year of MyToolBox EU Project, Barilla started to work on synergic potential of (pre-)milling strategies.

The MyToolBox partners from ASAG and CAAS-FRI successfully secured funding for their project activities from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. With more than half a million Euros, the various tests can be performed to ensure the practicality of the MyToolBox actions.

The MyToolBox coordinator, Prof. Rudolf Krska, gave a lecture on "Emerging toxins and how to manage them" and presented MyToolBox as a new field-to-fork approach to reduce mycotoxins along food and feed chains.

In a recent publication, Kovalsky and colleagues stressed the urgency to fight mycotoxins: With latest mycotoxin contamination data of globally sampled feed material analysed during the last couple of years, it is clear that “[…] considerably more than the FAO suggested figure of 25% of global agricultural commodities are contaminated with mycotoxins”. In fact, up to 80% of agricultural products are estimated to be contaminated with mycotoxins or other secondary metabolites of fungi. As health risks prevail, uncertainty of mycotoxin occurrence, toxicity of emerging or masked mycotoxins, and the cocktail-effect of multiple mycotoxins in products still pose a major challenge in mycotoxin research.

On December 2^nd, 2016, Prof. Rudolf Krska presented the project at the International Symposium of Mycotoxicology 2016, under the auspices of the Japanese Society of Mycotoxicology in Tokyo, Japan. By showing the opportunities of mycotoxin reduction strategies along the food and feed chain, MyToolBox contributed to the mutual understanding of mycotoxin problems in Asia.

As invited guest speaker for the mycotoxin expert session, Prof. Rudolf Krska also got the opportunity to present the MyToolBox project at the 2016 World Nutrition Forum. The Forum offers industry professionals the opportunity to explore the factors driving the protein economy, its trajectory and future. Besides species-specific breakout sessions, it featured a top-class mycotoxin expert session during which key research findings and the application of the latest technologies in mycotoxin deactivation was discussed. Another highlight of the Forum is honoring ground-breaking innovation in livestock health and nutrition with the B.R.A.I.N. award – which was awarded to Prof. Krska during this year’s forum for his ambitions and achievements in mycotoxin research.

The Project Management Board (PMB), consisting of the Coordinator, Co-Coordinator, Project Manager, Work Package (WP) leaders, the Deputy WP leaders from WP 2 and 3, met in person at the facilities of DLO-RIKILT from October 6 – 7, 2016. Besides discussions on the project’s past and future progress, the PMB members could tour the World Soil museum at the Wageningen University. It not only offered a glimpse into the functions of soil for agricultural production, but also provided a good example of the use of ICT tools for providing detailed, local information of the sample.

The first scientific publication related to MyToolBox was published in the World Mycotoxin Journal in October 2016: “Safe food and feed through an integrated toolbox for mycotoxin management: the MyToolBox approach”. It discusses the scientific methods and objectives applied along the entire food and feed chain.