Deoxynivalenol and its masked forms in food and feed

• DON occurs in more than half of grain samples, often together with other mycotoxins.
• Advances in analytical techniques enabled novel insights into the metabolism of DON.
• The biomarker approach facilitates an individual DON exposure assessment in humans.
• The masked mycotoxin DON-3-Glc is partly cleaved during mammalian digestion.
• First feed additive for DON detoxification approved in the EU.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most frequently occurring mycotoxins in cereal crops worldwide. DON poses a risk to human and animal health due to its wide range of adverse effects. Recently, novel insights into the metabolism of DON enabled the use of the biomarker approach for human exposure assessment. In certain subpopulations, a considerable proportion of tested individuals were found to exceed the maximum tolerable intake for DON. Since the masked mycotoxin deoxynivalenol-3-β-d-glucoside (DON-3-Glc) is partly cleaved during mammalian digestion, liberation of DON might further increase the total mycotoxin burden. However, progress in better understanding detoxification strategies along the food and feed chain has been made and the first product for DON detoxification in feed was approved in the EU.