**5. Comparison between the Different Mycotoxin Decontamination Treatments**

In general, chemical treatments achieved higher reduction rates of mycotoxins than physical treatments in solid foods and feeds. This effectiveness is accompanied by many side effects, such as the detrimental impacts on the quality of the treated food materials (ammoniation) and the formation of unavoidable chemical residues causing an environmental problem (nixtamalization). All the chemical treatments presented in this review showed possible scalability, except the acid treatment, due to the high cost of using organic acids. The physical treatments showed lower degradation rates. This can be seen in the shielding effect in the case of irradiation or the presence of the skin on some foods, such as peanuts. It is worth noting that these physical treatments usually have low penetrability where the effect remains superficial, treating a thin layer. The biological treatments of solid foods or feeds were commonly less available than other treatments. They showed good results and achieved high reduction rates with a beneficial effect of LAB on fermentation by increasing lactic acid production in maize. Combined fermentation using two LAB strains achieved higher reduction rates than those using each strain individually. The results obtained using the biological decontamination treatments prove its suitability to be considered an alternative to physical and chemical treatments by providing a safe, eco-friendly, and cost-effective method with a minimal negative effect on the quality of treated materials.

Concerning the combined treatment and by comparing the subsequent treatments in Table 4 and the simultaneous treatments in Table 5, we can spotlight many successful combinations, such as the subsequent application of O3/UV-C/citric acid and high concentration H2O2 treatment at moderate temperature/roasting, which achieved a reduction of AFs in pistachio and peanuts, respectively. The reduction of AFs by PEF/heat treatment attained high reduction rates in agar, but it was decreased when implemented in dry food, hypothesizing that the presence of water contributes to its success in AF elimination. Roasting/brewing was able to reduce mycotoxins without reaching the complete elimination of AFs and OTA from coffee beans. All the simultaneous treatments mentioned in this review showed their success in reducing or eliminating AFs; reduction rates exceeding 93% were accomplished by implementing citric acid with pulsed light to peanuts, IR nixtamalization to maize, and roasting with acid to pistachio.
