Mycotoxins in food products – health effects and methods of monitoring in Poland
Mycotoxins in food products – health effects and methods of monitoring in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Food that is consumed by humans on a daily basis has essential nutritional and dietary value, but can also posea threat to human life and health. This risk is caused by the mycotoxins that food products contain. Grains areoften contaminated by the Alternaria species, which are capable of producing a range of mycotoxins. In addition,the consumption of grains attacked by the Alternaria species and contaminated with mycotoxins is associatedwith the risk of oesophageal cancer in humans. This paper is a review of the literature on the harmful effects ofmycotoxins contained in food products. The potential threats to human health and life caused by food contaminatedwith mycotoxins are also described. The most important groups of mycotoxins: aflatoxins, ochratoxinsA, trichothecenes and fumonisins have been characterized in terms of their occurrence and toxicity. Furthermore,the methods of determining mycotoxins and the principles of the functioning of mycotoxins monitoringsystem in food in Poland are described, indicating the aim of the research undertaken and the results obtained.The reference material for this study was the literature on the presence of mycotoxins in food and their effectson humans, which was provided by the scientific and medical databases, as well as the reports of the Departmentof Epidemiology of the National Institute of Public Health – the National Institute of Hygiene, Departmentof Prevention and Control of Infections and Infectious Diseases in People and the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate.

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