Dr Pitt married his studies of food mycology with mycotoxin research and became an authority on the specific fungi that produce specific mycotoxins. With the discovery in about 1980 of a serious problem with aflatoxin in Australian peanuts, Dr Pitt worked to understand the role of the environment on this issue. He later was a pioneer in the study of biocontrol by competitive exclusion as a promising technique for controlling aflatoxin formation in peanuts and maize. Although this technique is now being widely rolled out in Africa, he was never able to convince himself that biocontrol was a “magic bullet” for controlling aflatoxin formation, but in fact is better regarded as just one more tool in combatting what remains a major public health problem in maize and peanut producing areas of the world.