Organic cookbook said:
> > ...Wheat, for example, when stored for long periods in
> > grain elevators, can develop fungi and moulds that, in
> > turn, produce poisons called mycotoxins.
You wrote:
> It may be theoretically possible to culture mycotoxins in
> stored grain somewhere, but the conditions
> prevalent in Canada militate pretty strongly against it...
I think you are right. It is pretty easy to prevent storage fungi in modern
grain handling. But this thread is deceptive in it's focus on storage
molds, because the big mycotoxin problem is from field fungi. Under humid
conditions, Fusarium graminearum is endemic in wheat, producing a variety of
toxins. I believe the food industry has some pretty stringent controls on
this, and the problem is more frequent in monogastric feeding.
Corn from the Southeast is sometimes infected with Aspergillus flavus via
the silk, and this can give rise to dangerous levels of aflatoxin prior to
harvest. More subtle is infection (nearly universal) of corn ears with
Fusarium moniliforme (and related sp). Sometimes, toxic levels of nasty
chemicals are produced. There are varieties of corn that resist infection
and/or toxin production, and this is currently a major breeding goal.
Dale
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