Mycotoxin risks are lower in biotech corn

Mycotoxins are food contaminants that occur when toxigenic fungi colonize crops. Unfortunately, corn, a major staple crop worldwide, is highly susceptible to mycotoxin contamination. Some mycotoxins, most notably aflatoxin, cause human cancer and other harmful effects such as immunotoxicity and growth impairment. Hence, many nations have set food-safety standards on mycotoxins. Aside from regulations, good agricultural and manufacturing practices lower mycotoxin risks. Agricultural biotechnology has made notable advances in reducing mycotoxins recently. While transgenic Bt corn has been known for years to reduce the mycotoxin fumonisin, new studies have shown its benefit in reducing aflatoxin as well. Other transgenic and RNA-interference corn hybrids target mycotoxin reduction specifically, and gene editing through clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat systems has focused on preventing mycotoxin biosynthesis. [Display omitted] •Foodborne mycotoxins cause cancer and other diseases in humans and animals.•Not all fungi produce toxins, but corn is vulnerable to toxigenic fungal infection.•Transgenic Bt corn has significantly lower aflatoxin and fumonisin levels.•New transgenic and RNA-interference corn varieties show lower levels of mycotoxins.•Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat gene editing technologies show promise in mycotoxin reduction in foods.