Food Safety in the Context of Bioterrorism: The Challenge of Mycotoxins

This manuscript examines food safety through the lens of bioterrorism, emphasizing how deliberate contamination of food and water systems can cause not only illness and death, but also fear, economic disruption, and erosion of public trust. It reviews the public health and regulatory foundations of food defense, including preventive controls, vulnerability assessments, surveillance, and traceback systems, and situates mycotoxins within this broader security framework. Historical incidents of intentional contamination with microbial pathogens demonstrate that foodborne agents can be weaponized, while mycotoxins represent a distinct but credible concern because of their persistence, difficulty of detection, and capacity to contaminate widely distributed staple commodities. The manuscript synthesizes major mycotoxin classes, their exposure pathways, toxicologic mechanisms, analytical detection methods, and mitigation strategies, with attention to cross-cutting risk drivers such as climate, storage conditions, masked toxins, and co-contamination. Collectively, the evidence supports integrating microbial and mycotoxin hazards into food-defense planning and strengthening coordination among surveillance, laboratory, regulatory, and emergency- response systems to improve preparedness and resilience.