FUMONISINS: DANGEROUS MYCOTOXINS IN CORN FLAKES

Corn flakes. So innocent but ... Credit: Photo by G. von Hammer.

 

By Salvatore Scimino

Millions of Americans (USA) start their weekdays with breakfast cereals, usually corn flakes. Like wearing blue jeans, this breakfast habit has now spread world-wide. 

Corn flakes have invaded the shelves of most grocery stores around the planet. It is considered a convenient food item.

Surprisingly, wherever you shop for this industrial food, there is no warning of the hidden danger in corn flakes in the boxes.

It turns out that corn flakes are usually contaminated with dangerous mycotoxins: fumonisins.

The fumonisins are a group of related mycotoxins produced mainly by Fusarium verticillioides (formerly known as F. moniliforme) and F. proliferatum (Fungi: Ascomycota: Nectriaceae),  which are known to infect corn crops around the world (Kim et al., 2003).

Depending on their chemical structure, fumonisins can be divided into FB₁, FB₂, FB₃ and FB₄.

The potential danger of fumosisins is explained by (Kim et al., 2003), where you will find the corresponding citations for each health problem given below:

·FB1, for example, is known to cause equine leukoencephalomalacia and porcine pulmonaryoedema

·It is also a kidney or liver carcinogen in rats and mice,

·It causes DNA damage in human fibroblasts and

·It is immunotoxic,

·Epidemiological studies suggest that FB1 may be associated with human oesophageal cancer, and

·Also, there is a possibility that fumonisins are connected with infant neural tube defects in South Texas, USA.

 

There is one big problem with these mycotoxins: The more we eat corn flakes and other industrial maize products (tortilla chips, popcorn, etc.), the more the risk of bioaccumulating fumonisins in our bodies.

So next time you are going to eat a bowl of corn flakes, if you care about your health in the long run, remember this.

For more information of fumonisins, check Google Scholar HERE.

 

References

Kim E.K., Scott P.M. & Lau B.P.Y. (2003). Hidden fumonisin in corn flakes. Food Addit. Contam., 20 (2): 161-169.

 

 

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