| Summary: | Mycotoxins contamination and pest infestation of foods and feeds represent a pivotal threat for food safety and security worldwide, with crucial implications for human and animal health. Controlled atmosphere could be a sustainable strategy to reduce mycotoxins content and counteract the vitality of deleterious organisms in foodstuff. Ozone treatment (O<sub>3</sub>, 500 ppb for 30, 60 or 90 min) and high nitrogen concentration (N<sub>2</sub>, 99% for 21 consecutive days) were tested in the post-harvest management of four batches of <i>Cicer arietinum</i> grains to control the presence of mycotoxigenic fungi and their secondary metabolites, as well as pest (i.e., <i>Callosobruchus maculatus</i>) infestation. At the end of the treatment, O<sub>3</sub> significantly decreased the incidence of <i>Penicillium</i> spp. (by an average of −50%, independently to the time of exposure) and reduced the patulin and aflatoxins content after 30 min (−85 and −100%, respectively). High N<sub>2</sub> concentrations remarkably reduced mycotoxins contamination (by an average of −94%) and induced pest mortality (at 100% after 5 days of exposure). These results confirm the promising potential of O<sub>3</sub> and N<sub>2</sub> in post-harvest conservation strategies, leading to further investigations to evaluate the effects on the qualitative characteristics of grains.
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