Cooking with Citrinin: What Happens to This Toxin When We Heat Our Food?

Citrinin, or CIT for short, is a nasty toxin that can be found in many foods we eat every day. It's in cereals, spices, nuts, and even some fermented foods. The good news is that when we cook these foods, the amount of CIT goes down. But why? And what happens to it? Scientists have been looking into this. They found that when CIT is heated, it breaks down into something called decarboxycitrinin, or DCIT. This happens in different food mixes, like when you bake biscuits. But here's where it gets interesting: CIT can also stick to carbohydrates in food. This means that even after cooking, some CIT might still be there, just in a different form. The scientists used special tools to watch how CIT changes when heated. They found that DCIT is less toxic than CIT, but they're not sure about the toxicity of CIT that's stuck to carbohydrates. This is important because it could mean that even after cooking, some CIT might still be harmful. So, what does this all mean for us? Well, it's a reminder that even when we cook our food, we should still be careful about what we eat. It's also a call for more research. We need to know more about how CIT changes when we cook food and how it affects our health.