Keeping the mycotoxins out: experience gathered by an international food company

As early as the mid-1960s the analysis of aflatoxins became an important part of Nestlé's quality control programme, especially since the Company's products include a wide variety of milk- and cereal-based foods intended for infants and children. At that time, dealing with this problem was hampered by the lack of simple and reliable analytical methods, the absence of legal provisions in many countries, the widely different origin of the raw materials, and the fact that sources of contamination were often beyond the Company's control. However, over the years substantial progress has been made, mainly by setting up an inspection system including suitable methods of analysis that allow compliance with raw material specifications to be checked at source. In spite of the fact that the problem of aflatoxins in milk, cereals, and oilseeds has now been largely tackled, it is increasingly necessary to step up our mycotoxin surveillance programme. Indeed, several other mycotoxins have now become a matter of concern, as witnessed by the recent fumonisin scare. Moreover, increasingly severe legislations put a heavy burden on the analysts responsible for the inspection of the raw materials, especially in European countries. This article presents the Company's considerable efforts over a period of almost 30 years in trying to keep the mycotoxins out, or at least to limit their concentrations to the lowest possible levels.