Handbook of Plant and Animal Toxins in Food : Occurrence, Toxicity, and Prevention

The prevalence of naturally occurring toxins in plant and animal foods represents one of the most significant food safety issues, drawing the attention of both scientists and regulators alike. This unexplored area related to food quality is indeed a big concern for consumers, various regulatory authorities, and food industries. Apart from essential nutrients, several food crops are capable of producing a vast array of nonnutritious secondary metabolic products. These toxins produced as secondary metabolites have the potential to exhibit both beneficial and deleterious effects in both human beings and animals. Nevertheless, there has been huge progress in agricultural practices and food processing technologies, but still the number of nonnutritive substances and naturally derived toxins persist in our diet.

, focuses on various selected toxins in foods derived from plants as well as animals. The prominent plant toxins include solanine and chaconine, mushroom toxins, phytates, tannins, oxalates, goitrogens, gossypol, phytohemagglutinins, erucic acid, saponins, cyanogenic glycosides, enzyme inhibitors, BOAA (lathyrogens), toxic amino acids and toxic fatty acids. The prominent animal toxins covered in the book include various seafood toxins, shellfish toxins and biogenic amines.

Commencing with a brief introduction of food toxins, this book is designed in such a way that the readers will be introduced to toxicity, safety and occurrence of each toxin selected. It also discusses the in-depth detailed information on food poisoning and its prevention. The book will also shed light on foodborne illness associated with toxins. The primary audience for this work will be food scientists, food toxicologists, university scholars and college students. Furthermore, the book will be of immense help for public health officials, pharmacologists, and food safety officers who are involved with enforcing regulations meant to ensure the safety of a particular food

Dr Gulzar Ahmad Nayik completed his Master's Degree in Food Technology from Islamic University of Science & Technology, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir, India and PhD from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sangrur, Punjab, India. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed research and review papers, 29 book chapters, edited two books in Springer Nature and published one textbook and has delivered number of presentations at various national and international conferences, seminars, workshops, and webinars. Dr Nayik was shortlisted twice for prestigious Inspire-Faculty Award in 2017 and 2018 from Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He was nominated for India's prestigious National Award (Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists-2019-20). Dr Nayik also fills the roles of editor, associate editor, assistant editor & reviewer for many food science and technology journals. He has received many awards, appreciations and recognitions and holds membership of various International societies & organizations. Dr Nayik is currently editing several book projects in Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Wiley & Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr Jasmeet Kour completed her Master's Degree in Food Science and Technology from Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India. She was awarded doctoral degree at Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal, Sangrur, Punjab, India from Department of Food Engineering and Technology in 2019. She has been serving as an assistant professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology, Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir since 2009. She has conducted her vast research in various prominent nutraceuticals derived from plant origin and her work has been published in reputed journals with high impact factors in eminent publishing houses in the field of food science. She has presented her research and review paper presentations in various national and international conferences. She has authored as well as co-authored numerous book chapters and scientific articles published in international books with prestigious publishing names such as Elsevier and Springer. She is also a part of various international projects. As her research work left a great imprint, she was also cordially invited to share her newest research findings at Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan at the 6th International Conference on Agricultural and Biological Sciences (ABS 2020). She is currently working as editorial board member and peer reviewer of various journals of repute.