Assessing and reducing exposure of particularly rural subsistence maize farming communities to mycotoxins produced by toxigenic food-borne fungi. The aim is to protect populations in South Africa from the impact of dietary exposure to mycotoxins. Research focuses mainly on the fumonisin mycotoxins produced by Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum in maize, which forms the dietary staple of millions of South Africans. Home-grown maize is a major dietary staple in southern Africa and known to be frequently contaminated with unacceptable levels of the fumonisin mycotoxins. Rural subsistence farming communities in South Africa have some of the highest recorded levels of fumonisin (B1) in the world, with exposure to FB1 in adults more than four times above the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (2 µg FB1/kg body weight/day) as set by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives. Although local commercial maize is contaminated with lower levels, daily exposure could still be a risk factor for disease development in impoverished communities. Studies are aimed towards identification and quantification of the main food-borne pathogenic fungi presenting a threat to human health; development and validation of advanced analytical methods for detection and quantification of multiple mycotoxins in food commodities by LC-MS/MS; detection and quantification of biomarkers of exposure to multiple mycotoxins by LC-MS/MS; molecular mechanisms of fumonisin biosynthesis; development of GRAS microbial strains (advanced molecular cloning approaches) and enzyme preparations for detoxification of the fumonisins in maize; development of bio-control intervention methods aimed at reducing mycotoxin exposure in affected rural areas, thereby improving food safety and security in South Africa.

Food safety; Mycotoxicology; Biological control of mycotoxins; Analytical and molecular techniques for identification of fungi; Analytical techniques for quantification and purification of multiple mycotoxins in grains; Analytical techniques for quantification of urinary biomarkers of exposure to multiple mycotoxins; Biodiversity of mycotoxigenic fungal strains. Over the years involved in mycotoxin research as part of the multi-disciplinary research teams of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (Institute of Biomedical and Microbial Biotechnology); Medical Research Council (PROMEC Unit); and Stellenbosch University (Microbiology Department), South Africa.