Recent Strategies for Microbial and Fungal Decontamination of Cereals with a Potential for Application in Food Production

Microbial contamination of crops and plants during the growth, harvesting, and storage could cause significant economic losses because of their impact on food quality and safety, and animal health and productivity. There are few possibilities to avoid contamination of food/feed such as prevention of contamination, inhibition of fungal and/or bacterial growth during harvest and storage, precise sampling and monitoring of toxins levels, and microbial decontamination during food/feed processing by using novel tools. The integrating detection and mitigation of contaminationand evaluation of processing technologies for decontamination and detoxificationor high-risk commodities should be a priority.

Keywords: Cereals; mycotoxins; acoustic sensing; ozonation; lactic acid fermentation; antimicrobial products.