Fungal growth and consequent mycotoxin release in food and feed threatens human health, which might even, in acute cases, lead to death. Control and prevention of foodborne poisoning is a major task of public health that will be faced in the 21st century. Nowadays, consumers increasingly demand healthier and more natural food with minimal use of chemical preservatives, whose negative effects on human health are well known. Biopreservation is among the safest and most reliable methods for inhibiting fungi in food. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are of great interest as biological additives in food owing to their Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) classification and probiotic properties. LAB produce bioactive compounds such as reuterin, cyclic peptides, fatty acids, etc., with antifungal properties. This review highlights the great potential of LAB as biopreservatives by summarizing various reported antifungal activities/metabolites of LAB against fungal growth into foods. In the end, it provides profound insight into the possibilities and different factors to be considered in the application of LAB in different foods as well as enhancing their efficiency in biodetoxification and biopreservative activities.

In this work, binding characteristics of two hydrophilic nutraceutical models, namely epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and folic acid (FA), to sodium caseinate were studied by fluorimetry technique. EGCG‐loaded casein molecules were then converted to either re‐combined casein micelles (r‐CMs) or casein nanoparticles (CNPs). Binding stoichiometry of EGCG and FA was 0.81 and 1.02, respectively. As determined by DLS technique, the average particle size of r‐CMs prepared at 0.5% concentration was 66.2 nm. Thermal treatment (74°C, 20 s) had significant (p < 0.05) influence on the particle size of nanocarriers, but not nutraceutical loading. The average size of CNPs was larger than that of r‐CMs. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) of EGCG was 85%, and its ejection from the nanocarrier was less than 3% over 21 days. Alkaline conditions resulted in higher release of EGCG than acidic conditions. r‐CMs were more effective than CNPs during the protection of EGCG against heat‐induced degradation. TEM micrographs confirmed the formation of r‐CMs.

Today, a few hundred mycotoxins have been identified and the number is rising. Mycotoxin detoxification of food and feed has been a technically uphill task for the industry. In the twenty-first century, the public demand is healthy food with minimum use of chemicals and preservatives. Among all the fungal inhibition and mycotoxin detoxification methods so far developed for food, biopreservation and biodetoxification have been found safe and reliable. Nowadays, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are of great interest as biological additives in food owing to their Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) classification and mycotoxin detoxification capability. The occurrence of fungul growth in the food chain can lead to health problems such as mycotoxicosis and cancer to humans due to producing mycotoxins such as aflatoxins. Biopreservation is among the safest and most reliable methods for inhibition of fungi in food. This review highlights the great potential of LAB as biodetoxificant by summarizing various reported detoxification activities of LAB against fungal mycotoxins released into foods. Mechanisms of mycotoxin detoxification, also the inherent and environmental factors affecting detoxifying properties of LAB are also covered.