Statistical designs are used to test how different chemicals in a mixture interact with each other. In this study, researchers looked at the effects of five mycotoxin species in contaminated food samples. They found that when these mycotoxins were combined, the overall effect was mostly just the sum of their individual effects, with a few exceptions showing stronger interactions. The researchers used different experimental designs to detect and characterize these interactions, showing that the nature of the interactions was similar across the different designs, but the strength of the interactions varied.