Abstract: In recent years, food poisoning incidents caused by marine biotoxins have increasingly occurred, posing a great threat to human beings and the society. Marine biotoxins, mainly produced by algae, phytoplankton or microorganisms, can exist in marine organisms such as shellfish and fish for a long period of time, which have heat resistance and cannot be inactivated by conventional processing methods such as heating and microwave. After entering the human body through the food chain, marine biotoxins cause toxic side effects on the liver, cells, and the cardiovascular and nervous systems and consequently human poisoning. The classification and toxic mechanism of marine biotoxins and the technologies for their detection are reviewed in this paper, which will provide a reference for preventing marine biotoxins from causing harm to human health.

Key words: marine organisms; toxins; classification; toxic mechanism; detection technologies