Contamination of agricultural and food products by some fungi species that produce mycotoxins can result in unsafe food and feed. Mycotoxins have been demonstrated to have disease‐causing activities, including carcinogenicity, immune toxicity, teratogenicity, neurotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity. Most of mycotoxins are heat stable and cannot be easily destroyed by conventional thermal food processing or domestic cooking methods. Postharvest approaches to prevent growth of mycotoxin‐producing fungi and detoxify mycotoxins from contaminated food are important topics in food safety research. Physical, chemical, and biological methods have been applied to prevent fungal growth or mycotoxin production, or to reduce mycotoxin content in the postharvest period and contribute toward mitigating against the effects of mycotoxins on human health. This literature review aims to evaluate postharvest approaches that have been applied to control both fungi growth and mycotoxin content in food and discuss their potential for upscaling to industrial scale.

This paper reviews and analyses the importance of maize as staple food in Eastern and Southern Africa (E&SA) and contributes in understanding the nexus between maize nutritional composition and prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) in these regions. MNDs remain a major public health concern particularly for women and children, with calcium, iodine, iron, selenium, zinc, folate and vitamin A deficiencies being the most common. Estimates of their prevalence are among the highest in E&SA: iron-deficient anemia affected 26 to 31% of women of reproductive age, and deficiencies up to 53%, 36%, 66%, 75% and 62% for vitamin A, iodine, zinc, calcium and selenium, respectively, were measured in populations of these regions. Besides, these two regions show the highest worldwide maize per capita consumption (g/person/day) as main staple, with 157 in Eastern Africa and 267 in Southern Africa, including up to 444 in Lesotho. The analysis of food composition tables from these regions showed that 100 g of maize foods consumed by these populations could to some extent, contribute in satisfying dietary reference intakes (DRIs) of children and women in energy, proteins, carbohydrates, magnesium, zinc, vitamins B1 and B6. However, it provides very low supply of fats, calcium, sodium, selenium, vitamins C, A and E. The high occurrence of MNDs and considerable nutritional potential of maize consumed in E&SA can be explained by loss of nutrients due to processing practices, low food diversification and reduced nutrients bioavailability. Success cases of the main strategies to tackle the issue of MNDs in these regions by improving maize nutritional quality are discussed in this paper. Maize fortification was shown to improve nutrition and health outcomes of population. Increasing dietary diversity by complementing maize with other foods has improved nutrition through integration of micronutrient-rich foods in the diet. Mostly, biofortification has successfully contributed in reducing vitamin A and zinc deficiencies in rural communities more than nutrient supplementation, fortification and dietary diversity.

It is of paramount importance for consumers, scientists and industrialists to understand how low-temperature storage of food items affects their bioactive compounds and properties. This study evaluated the effects of cold storage on total phenolics (TP), phenolic acids profile (PA), total anthocyanins (TA), total ascorbic acid (Vit. C) and antioxidant activity (AA) of 19 fruits and vegetables, collected from local Indian markets and stored in refrigerator (4 °C) during 15 days. Content of TP was highest in dill and amaranth and decreased (up to 29.67%) with storage. Leafy vegetables (amaranth, dill, onion, fenugreek and spinach) contained higher amounts of the 12 PA revealed by UPLC-UV; ellagic, gallic, sinapic and vanillic acids levels were the highest; chlorogenic acid (ρ = 0.423), syringic acid (ρ = 0.403) and sinapic acid (ρ = 0.452) mostly correlated with TP; and the PA increased during storage. Highest contents of Vit C estimated by AOAC, DCPIP and DNP methods were found in amaranth, dill and pomegranate, and decreased with storage. Pomegranate showed highest TA levels and low-temperature storage did not significantly increase TA, which was the largest contributor of TP in fruits and vegetables (ρ = 0.661). Storage induced a drastic decrease of AA, which mostly correlated with TP (ρ = 0.808, 0.690 and 0.458 for DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays, respectively). Spearman’s correlation confirmed by principal component analysis demonstrated that dill, pomegranate and amaranth had the highest overall antioxidant capacity, whereas orange juice and carrot showed the lowest. The results provide support for a key-role of TP, followed by Vit. C and TA in antioxidant capacity of fruits and vegetables, which could be interesting dietary sources of natural antioxidants for prevention of diseases caused by oxidative stress.

• Mandarin peel extracts inhibited the growth of A. flavus by up to 52% over 7 days. • The MIC of mandarin extracts was 300-400 mg mL⁻¹ depending on the extraction solvent. • Phenolic-rich SPE fractions showed 40% higher antifungal activity than crude extracts. • Narirutin and hesperidin were most abundant phenolic compounds in mandarin extracts.

Storage of potato tubers at low temperature affects their metabolism and may alter their phytochemical properties. There is a need to elucidate the changes in antioxidant compounds, activity and enzymes during storage of tubers. Eleven Indian potato varieties were evaluated for antioxidant parameters, after 0, 30, 60 and 90 days of storage at room temperature, 15 °C and 4 °C. Total phenolics (0.0786–0.1546 mg gallic acid equivalents⋅g−1 FW) and vitamin C content (0.0828–0.2416 mg⋅g−1 FW) varied among the varieties and were different with storage temperature; their levels fluctuated during storage but remained above the initial level until the last day of observation. Phenolic acid profiling by UPLC identified 12 compounds among which the most abundant was chlorogenic acid followed by gallic acid, sinapic acid and ellagic acid. Except para-coumaric acid which decreased at 4 °C, all the phenolic acids increased with storage. Caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, protocatechuic acid and gallic acid mostly correlated with total phenolic content (r = 0.456, 0.482, 0.588 and 0.620, respectively). Antioxidant activity against both DPPH and ABTS radicals increased during the initial days of storage and then dropped to a level comparable or lower than the original value, irrespective of the storage temperature. Correlation study revealed that chlorogenic acid, gallic acid and ferulic acid mostly contributed to antioxidant activity. Activity of both antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase, increased initially but then decreased to values lower than the initial level and were not influenced by storage temperature. Correlation with antioxidant activity indicated that the enhancement of reactive oxygen scavenging species in cold stored tubers could result mainly from ascorbate peroxidase activity. Our results demonstrate that storage temperature adversely influences the metabolism and the content of antioxidant compounds in potato tubers, with subsequent increase on their antioxidant capacity