Aims and scope

Current climate change affects ecological niches of fungi including mycotoxin-producing fungal species. Toxigenic fungi often grow on edible plants, thus contaminating food and feed with various forms of mycotoxins, i.e. free and masked forms. Mycotoxins are known to exert a variety of toxic effects including hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity or immunosuppression. From public health point of view, the most important foodborne mycotoxins are aflatoxins, fumonisins, trichothecenes (including deoxynivalenol and T-2 and HT-2 toxins), ochratoxin A, patulin and zearalenone (ZEN), therefore their levels in food and feed are limited by European Union legislation. Development of analytical methods based on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry enabled simultaneous detection of more than one hundred fungal metabolites including major mycotoxins as well as masked (e.g., DON-3-glucoside), modified (e.g., 15-acetyl-DON) and emerging mycotoxins (e.g., enniatins, and beauvericin). Average ingestion of a single mycotoxin is relatively low in European countries; however food and feed are usually co-contaminated by multiple mycotoxins. Mycotoxin mixtures outcomes have been extensively studied in the last decade. New and improved methods for mycotoxins monitoring, detection, and research on mycotoxins interactions in vivo and in vitro, are leading to development of new strategies for reduction of mycotoxins in food and feed, mycotoxicosis prevention and update of current legislation. The objective is to bring together most prominent mycologists and mycotoxicologists from Europe and broader community to share knowledge, share experience, exchange new ideas, promote scientific contacts, and start potential collaborations. The last but not the least, it is to inform and teach students about current topics in mycology and mycotoxicology.