Alternaria mycotoxins in food and feed: Occurrence, biosynthesis, toxicity, analytical methods, control and detoxification strategies

Alternaria toxins naturally occur on food and feed contaminated with Alternaria species and have been recovered from different human biological fluids. Alternariol, alternariol monomethyl ether, tenuazonic acid, altertoxins, and tentoxin are the most studied Alternaria mycotoxins. Some of these mycotoxins are carcinogenic, toxic, and mutagenic; hence, European Commission (EU) set an indicative value for these emerging mycotoxins. This review highlights that despite of the health risk implications, no maximum limits have been established for these emerging mycotoxins. It offers a comprehensive review of the most recent developments in this field of study including the recently released EFSA report in 2022 on recommendation level of the most toxic Alternaria mycotoxins in certain foods. The present review aims to provide insight on the occurrence, biosynthetic processes, and toxicity of Alternaria mycotoxins covering the recent first reports of toxicodynamics of highly genotoxic dibenzopyrone and perylene derivatives. It offers additional insights on the analytical methods focusing on the detection of masked forms of mycotoxins and assessment of human exposure via human biomonitoring; in addition, it provides summary of control and detoxification strategies including physical, chemical, and biological methods.