Self-supporting Zein nanofibrous membrane for targeted detoxification of zearalenone in wheat beer

Zearalenone (ZEN) is an estrogenic mycotoxin that widely contaminates cereals and their products, developing efficient and targeted ZEN removal technologies in food matrices is of significant importance. In this study, a self-supporting three-dimensional Zein nanofibrous membrane was successfully prepared via electrospinning, and its adsorption performance and mechanism for ZEN were systematically evaluated. The results indicated that the material exhibits excellent adsorption performance and remarkable selectivity for ZEN. Under optimized conditions, the maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity for ZEN reached 0.48 mg/g Competitive adsorption experiments in a coexisting system containing ZEN, aflatoxin B 1 and patulin further confirmed its high selectivity for targeted detoxifying ZEN. Further continuous-flow experiments were designed to evaluate the ZEN removal performance of Zein nanofibrous membranes in a real beer matrix. The membranes maintained a detoxification rate of 90.48% for ZEN without significantly affecting the key quality parameters of the beer, demonstrating its promising application potential in complex food matrices. This study provides theoretical and technical support for the targeted detoxification of ZEN from food using Zein, and opens new avenues for the application of fully bio-based membranes in food contamination control.