Dear Colleagues,

The possibility of oral exposure to toxins (e.g. mycotoxins, water biotoxins, plant, bacterial, and mushrooms toxins), i.e., through food and water, represents a serious health concern both for humans and animals. The term toxin indicates a natural substance or a mixture of them that, when at a high enough dose, can affect normal biological processes, causing adverse health effects. By nature, toxins may be physiologically produced by an organism or may be biosynthesized under particular conditions (e.g. environmental stress, selective pressure on certain bacterial strains, and climate change altering ecosystems balance).

Given their high number, the variety of chemical structures and sources from which they are derived as well as the detection of toxins represent analytical challenges. While the development of new sensitive analytical methods is essential in food control, the continuous monitoring of toxin presence in foodstuff must be ensured to obtain the data necessary to characterize the risk for consumers; to estimate the dimension of the problem; and to encourage the development of new mitigation strategies.

Therefore, we invite reviews and research papers focusing on analytical advances in toxins and their metabolites detection, up-to-date monitoring plans concerning their occurrence in foodstuffs, risk assessment studies, and discussions of novel mitigation approaches.

Prof. Dr. Francesco Arioli
Dr. Federica Di Cesare
Guest Editors

• toxins
• screening methods
• sensors
• mass spectrometry
• monitoring plans
• risk assessment
• mitigation strategies