Mycotoxin Testing in Food-Stock Lots

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites which are a by-product of the fungal diseases that are prevalent in many commodity food crops such as grains, nuts, fruits and legumes. Due to food safety concerns, the maximum acceptable level of individual mycotoxins in various food stocks is subject to national and international regulations, and to specific food-industry norms. The development of acceptance-sampling protocols to ensure that individual suppliers and individual food-stock lots conform to these regulations and norms is therefore of considerable interest. In this report, we provide the relevant background on mycotoxin testing, and consider the need for further development of the theory and practice to include the following topics: (a) quantification of sampling and measurement uncertainty, (b) composite sampling and sub-sampling, (c) non-normal sampling distributions, and, (d) reduced-risk plans for variables sampling.