Mycotoxin contamination of food and feeds in the Philippines

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites which cause adverse effects in humans and animals when contaminated foods are ingested. In the Philippines, the most studied mycotoxin is the aflatoxin. There is very limited data on other mycotoxins such as fumonisins, ochratoxin, zearalenone, T-2 toxin and deoxynivalenol. In the country, problems on the export commodity copra meal is one of the major concerns due to its high aflatoxin levels which cause rejection of the oil mill by-product by importing countries, particularly in the European Union. National problem involved the local corn produce which shows aflatoxin levels beyond the 20 μg/kg tolerance limit. Previous studies showed that corn and peanuts are the most susceptible agricultural commodities that contain toxic levels of aflatoxin.