Research Advances on Identification and Detection Methods for Aflatoxigenic Fungi

Aflatoxin contamination in food and feed is a global concern for food safety, posing great threat to human and environmental health. It is the secondary metabolite mainly produced by Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) and Aspergillus parasiticus (A. parasiticus). Therefore, it is very urgent to develop rapid and sensitive identification and detection methods for aflatoxigenic fungi to realize early warning the risk of aflatoxin contamination from the source. This article reviews the latest research progress in the strategy of identifying and detecting aflatoxigenic fungi in agricultural food in recent years. The detection principles and applications of different techniques for aflatoxigenic fungi determination, including morphological identification, nucleic acid amplification techniques, spectral analysis technology, and biosensing, are presented in this review. Finally, the challenges and research trends of identification and detection of aflatoxigenic fungi in the future are also discussed. Through rapid and sensitive identification and detection of aflatoxigenic fungi, there will be relatively sufficient time to do corresponding prevention and control measures to reduce or even prevent the production of aflatoxin in the early stage, which will be very beneficial to greatly reduce the risk of aflatoxin contamination in agricultural food and improve food safety.