Problems with harmful fungal toxins growing in grain bins has led one engineer to create a new invention that will help farmers better detect the toxins.

Thomas Pearson, an agricultural engineer from the Agricultural Research Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, transformed a grain sorter into a fungal toxin detector by using infrared rays.

Mycotoxins, as the fungal toxins are more commonly known, come from a naturally occurring fungus in nature that produces a mold. There are a wide variety of mycotoxins in the world. Some are harmful, while others are not. As harmful mycotoxins grow, they excrete the toxin into the grain.

Pearson took a commercial sorter and transformed it into a detector. The sorter can detect fumonisin and aflatoxin, the two mycotoxins farmers in Iowa are most concerned about. Both are prevalent in corn crops.

The detector can process 260 bushels of corn per hour and catches 80 percent or more of infested kernels the first time through.

Toxins can be harmful to both humans and animals if consumed and have been found to be carcinogenic to humans. These harmful mycotoxins become a problem when the infested grain enters the food supply.

“Because the molds occur naturally, the climate generally determines outbreaks,” said Pat Murphy, university professor of food science and human nutrition.

Aflatoxin, for example, tends to attack during drought conditions, Murphy said. Other molds will flourish in wet, muggy conditions, she said.

Because there are certain conditions that encourage the toxin’s growth, the issue of handling grain has become an important issue, said Sam Beattie, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition.

If the grain is stored wet after harvest, it creates conditions for the mold to begin growing on the grain in the bin, said Beattie, ISU Extension specialist in food safety. This means farmers need to be conscious of the conditions in which they are storing and harvesting their grain, he said.

“Grain handling regulations were derived from outbreaks of aflatoxin and the studies that were done,” Murphy said.

Mycotoxins can be a big problem for farmers, especially economically, said Cindy Landgren, graduate student in food science and human nutrition. If parts of the crop are contaminated, it is a big loss of money for the farmer, Landgren said. But now, with the new detector, individual infested kernels can be tossed out instead of losing an entire crop, giving the farmer a real advantage, she said.

“It really depends on who has the detector,” Landgren said. “If farmers could sample the grain directly out on the farm, then it would save on transportation costs.”

The detector will also go easy on farmers’ wallets.

“It could save farmers millions of dollars and reduce exposure of humans to mycotoxins even further,” Beattie said.

Scientists have been conducting research to eliminate mycotoxins through processing, but they have not been successful yet, he said.