Recommendations concerning the chronic problem of misidentification of mycotoxigenic fungi associated with foods and feeds.

Since the aflatoxins were first reported in 1961 from Aspergillus flavus, mycotoxins have often been named after the fungus which was first found to produce them. A long list of connections between fungal species and mycotoxins and antibiotics has been reported, but unfortunately many of the identifications, and hence the connection between mycotoxin name and the source of the toxin, are incorrect (Frisvad, 1989). The most famous example of such incorrect connections was Alexander Fleming’s identification of the original penicillin producer as Penicillium rubrum. Fortunately, in this example, the substance was named after the genus Penicillium, rather than the species, as K. B. Raper re-identified the strain as P. notatum, which was subsequently determined to be a synonym of P. chrysogenum (Pitt, 1979b). Later, penicillin was found in other strains of P. chrysogenum (Raper and Thom, 1949). The early aflatoxin literature is plagued with wrong reports of aflatoxin production by Penicillium puberulum (Hodges et al., 1964),