Article ID: CBB666101881

Wild Toxicity, Cultivated Safety: Aflatoxin and Kōji Classification as Knowledge Infrastructure (2019)

unapi

Lee, Victoria (Author)


History and Technology
Volume: 35
Issue: 4
Pages: 405-424


Publication Date: 2019
Edition Details: Special Issue: Biology and Technology Reframed: Historiographical Reflections and Opportunities
Language: English

In 1960, the trajectory of aflatoxin as one of the earliest and best studied cases of a naturally occurring carcinogen in food intersected with the trajectory of an industrial microbe known in the Japanese vernacular as kōji, used for centuries in Japan to make sake, soy sauce, and miso. Over about two decades, the aflatoxin crisis spurred the emergence of a new evolutionary narrative of kōji, Aspergillus oryzae, as a domesticated, non-toxigenic species unique to the Japanese brewery that was clearly distinguishable from its wild, commonly found in nature, and aflatoxin-producing close relative, Aspergillus flavus. It was a shift that came hand-in-hand with the reconstruction of kōji classification. This essay examines the challenges of microbial classification after 1960. By asking how mycologists made a scientific narrative that originated in the interests of Japanese national industries convincing internationally, it explores the knowledge infrastructure that underlay both manufacturing issues and knowledge in microbiology.

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Article Karen A. Rader (2019) Introduction to the Special Issue Biology and Technology Reframed: Historiographical Reflections and Opportunities. History and Technology (pp. 366-373). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB666101881/

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Authors & Contributors
Yatsiuk, Iryna
Davids, Mila
Eric Van Vleet
Pärtel, Kadri
Berkers, Eric
Suija, Ave
Concepts
Food science; food technology
Food and foods
Food industry and trade
Food safety
Fungi
Food preservation
Time Periods
20th century, late
20th century, early
21st century
19th century
20th century
18th century
Places
United States
Europe
Estonia
Netherlands
Italy
France
Institutions
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
World Health Organization (WHO)
Smithsonian Institution
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