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DON (dexoynivvalenol) is a potent mycotoxin found in cereal grains depending on the local environment and infestation rate. DON is heat stable and has been found in baked processed products. However, DON is water-soluble and thus boiling could potentially reduce the DON content (Sugita-Konishi et al., 2006).

Sugita-Konishi et al. (2006) designed an interesting study to detect DON after boiling noodles that were medium-high in DON content (0.86ppm). They used the HPLC method to detect for DON. The authors also wanted to find out if, after boiling, DON-like toxins were present and studied these compounds using a bioassay. The reasoning was that boiling would potentially change the DON toxin, and that HPLC wouldn’t pick up these DON-like toxins but the bioassay would. A bioassay is a test in which cells are exposed to a solution containing potential DON-like substances. As a processing control, they baked bread from flour that contained 0.71ppm DON.

Sugita-Konishi et al. (2006) found a reduction in DON content (by HPLC detection) after the noodles were boiled: DON was reduced from 0.86ppm to 0.26ppm. The water in which the noodles were boiled contained 0.36ppm DON, however the boiling water is discarded after use. Boiling also reduced the cytotoxicity of DON by 65.0%. Thus boiling reduced DON content in noodles as measured by HPLC and bioassays.

Baking did not reduce DON (detected by HPLC): the starting flour contained 0.71±0.05ppm DON and the subsequent baked bread contained 0.77±0.05ppm DON. However, the bioassay showed a reduction of DON between 8.0 and 16.0%. The authors conclude from this data that while DON was not reduced by baking as a chemical compound but that the biological toxicity was significantly reduced (Sugita-Konishi et al., 2006). This study showed that boiling reduced DON content in noodles shown by both HPLC and bioassay. Baking did not reduce DON content as shown by HPLC, but baking did reduce the biological toxicity as shown by the bioassay.

Reference:

Sugita-Konishi, Y., B. J. Park, K. Kobayashi-Hattori, T. Tanaka, T. Chonan, K. Yoshikawa, and S. Kumgai. 2006. Effect of cooking process on the deoxynivalenol content and its subsequent cytotoxicity in wheat products. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 70:1764-1768.

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