Summary of the ACS Symposium on Public Health Perspectives of Mycotoxins in Food.

A symposium entitled "Public Health Perspectives of Mycotoxins in Food" was held at the 251st American Chemical Society (ACS) Meeting in March 2016 in San Diego, CA, and was sponsored by the ACS Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The purpose of the symposium was to convene the leading mycotoxin researchers throughout the world to discuss the current state of knowledge as well as research needs with respect to evaluating the toxicological properties of mycotoxins and ways to detect, control, and reduce human and animal exposure to these natural toxins. A total of 23 presentations were delivered by speakers representing academic, government, and industrial institutions from North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The presentations covered such diverse topics as a historical perspective on the discovery of the major fungal toxins, occurrence of mycotoxins in food and feed, toxicological properties of mycotoxins and their influence on public health, analytical methods for mycotoxins, pre- and postharvest control of mycotoxins, and regulatory aspects. This paper is intended to provide a brief summary of the presentations as well as a record of the proceedings of the symposium.