Saturated aqueous ozone degradation of deoxynivalenol and its application in contaminated grains

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a secondary metabolite produced by Fusarium graminearum in grains, food and contaminated feed, which can lead to many adverse health effects to humans and livestock. The degradation of DON in different contaminated grains oxidated by saturated aqueous ozone (80 mg L−1) was monitored by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography, tandem-quadrupole-detection mass spectrometry (UPLC-TQD-MS). Results suggest that ozone has a significant effect on DON reduction in solution. When 80 mg L−1 gaseous ozone was used to treat 10 mg L−1 of DON solution, the degradation rate of DON reached 83% within 7 min, while the respective detoxification rates of contaminated wheat, corn and bran by saturated aqueous ozone (80 mg L−1) were 74.86%, 70.65% and 76.21 in 10 min. Ozone at 80 mg L−1 was applied on various DON solution concentrations at 1 mg L−1, 10 mg L−1 and 20 mg L−1 in ultra-pure water. In this paper, the degradation procedure for DON is calculated and described by a first-order kinetic equation. At lower levels (20 mg L−1) of aqueous ozone, intermediate degradation products were observed by ultra-ne quickly and effectively degrades DON and toxicity in various contaminated grains in a matter of minutes. Therefore, ozonation is projected to be an effective, fast, and safe method for DON degradation.