Industrial-scale cleaning equipment for the effective reduction of mycotoxins in maize and dried fruit

Maize is the most important food crop in the world, although it is largely susceptible to mycotoxin contamination causing a negative economic impact and serious health risks to humans and animals. It is well-known that moldy, colored/discolored, injured, broken and damaged grain kernels, as well as dust within a contaminated batch of maize, contain high levels of mycotoxins. A combination of cleaning technologies to efficiently remove contaminated fractions can therefore significantly reduce mycotoxin contamination in the outcome product. Two case studies have been performed in Nördlingen (South Germany) and Monzon (Spain), respectively, to evaluate the efficacy of Bühler industrial-scale cleaning equipment in reducing aflatoxin content and some of the major Fusarium toxins in naturally contaminated maize by using three cleaning processes: i) mechanical size separation and dust removal by aspiration with the Grain Plus LAGA or TAS, ii) separation based on density differences with the Concentrator MTCB and iii) optical sorting with the SORTEX® A or Z+.