Boosting knowledge and harmonisation in the mycotoxin field through sustainable scientific alliances - MYCOBOOST

The MYCOBOOST project was aimed to develop an integrated collaborative model for knowledge exchange and methodology harmonization in mycotoxin risk assessment. A specific focus was given to the identification of methodological data gaps in the mycotoxins field and to promote data quality and methodological harmonization among the community. More specifically, the activities covered two main aspects, the need for a methodological harmonisation and the lack of extensive data quality procedures in the field. Specific needs were identified through online survey and interviews with experts, and further analysed within the consortium. The gap analysis was complemented by literature review and assessment of the current available data resources. As for methodological harmonisation, the tasks covered molecular methods for fungal identification, the inclusion of emerging mycotoxins in occurrence data, the use of computational methods in mycotoxins risk assessment and the inclusion of alternative/innovative food items in monitoring plans. For all these aspects, relevant gaps were highlighted and recommendations have been drawn. Concerning the improvement of data quality, the focus was on the revision of resources and database available online to support mycotoxins analysis and on the impact of left-censored data on mycotoxins exposure assessment. Moving from the collected evidence, a fit-for-purpose training was outlined and delivered through two physical workshops. The training materials (e.g. slides, video, exercises, handbooks) were later uploaded to ZENODO repository and made available to the scientific community.