Fungus microbiological, chemical or both?

Hi there!

I'm currently working on a Hazard Analysis. And i was wondering if fungus is a microbiological hazard, a chemical hazard or both. 

Thanks in advance!

Melle

Fungus is a microbiological issue. And the toxins produced such as aflatoxin are a chemical toxicological issue. I once had to do a Risk Assessment and Hazard Analysis on possible mycological contaminants and it can blow up very quickly so be cautious. The reason it can become rather convoluted is that finding supporting scientific studies and evidence that will say that mycotoxins were directly linked is neigh on impossible. Some will say that mycotoxins were responsible but only because they were present. Correlation does not imply causation. This is simply because that is an impossibility to prove a direct correlation scientifically to any one species or specific toxin sue to the variables. Therefore doing an exposure analysis or dose response is very difficult. In the end I took the 50,000ft approach and treated possible exposure in a holistic way. Hope this helps.

Hi Melle,

It is preferable IMO to specify the actual hazard from a haccp POV (although not always done in articles, books etc)

For the mycotoxins example attached, answer could be either or both depending on yr reference(s).

mycotoxins.pdf   125.23KB   26 downloads

Thanks a lot Clyde and Charles,

This made some things clear for me