A new physical and biological strategy to reduce the content of zearalenone in infected wheat kernels: the effect of cold needle perforation, microorganisms, and purified enzyme.

With the aim of reintroducing wheat grains naturally contaminated with mycotoxins into the food value chain, a decontamination strategy was developed in this study. For this purpose, in a first step, the whole wheat kernels were pre-treated using cold needle perforation. The pore size was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and the accessibility of enzymes and microorganisms determined using fluorescent markers in the size range of enzymes (5 nm) and microorganisms (10 μm), and fluorescent microscopy.