Processing Aids in Food and Beverage Manufacturing: Potential Source of Elemental and Trace Metal Contaminants

Underexplored food safety hazards of beekeeping products: Key knowledge gaps and suggestions for future research

These days, a growing consumer demand and scientific interest can be observed for nutraceuticals of natural origin, including apiculture products. Due to the growing emphasis on environmental protection, extensive research has been conducted on the pesticide and heavy metal contamination of bee products; however, less attention is devoted on other food safety aspects. In our review, scientific information on the less-researched food safety hazards of honey, bee bread, royal jelly, propolis, and beeswax are summarized. Bee products originating from certain plants may inherently contain phytotoxins, like pyrrolizidine alkaloids, tropane alkaloids, matrine alkaloids, grayanotoxins, gelsemium alkaloids, or tutin. Several case studies evidence that bee products can induce allergic responses to sensitive individuals, varying from mild to severe symptoms, including the potentially lethal anaphylaxis. Exposure to high temperature or long storage may lead to the formation of the potentially toxic 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. Persistent organic pollutants, radionuclides, and microplastics can potentially be transferred to bee products from contaminated environmental sources. And lastly, inappropriate beekeeping practices can lead to the contamination of beekeeping products with harmful microorganisms and mycotoxins. Our review demonstrates the necessity of applying good beekeeping practices in order to protect honeybees and consumers of their products. An important aim of our work is to identify key knowledge gaps regarding the food safety of apiculture products.

A Survey of the Levels of Selected Metals in U.S. Meat, Poultry, and Siluriformes Fish Samples Taken at Slaughter and Retail, 2017-2022

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) conducts surveillance of metallic elements in U.S. meat, poultry, and Siluriformes fish samples collected immediately postmortem as part of its National Residue Program (NRP). From 2017 to 2022, 13,966 samples were analyzed under the NRP. The Federal Emergency Response Network (FERN) Cooperative Agreement Program (CAP) tests meat, poultry, and Siluriformes fish products collected at retail in the United States for metals. From 2018 to 2022, 2,902 samples were analyzed by FERN CAP laboratories. Meat and poultry samples collected by FSIS show that most metals were not detected at all or were detected infrequently. Meat is a rich source of iron and zinc, and iron was detected in 22% (1,255/5,623) and zinc was detected in 48% (2,742/5,676) of meat and poultry samples, respectively. The percentage of samples testing positive for manganese, molybdenum, lead, and cadmium were higher in the FERN CAP retail samples than in FSIS samples. Expected human exposure from average levels of lead and cadmium found in meat and poultry was compared to toxicological reference values and was not found to exceed these values. Detections of arsenic and mercury were found more often in Siluriformes fish samples (2017-2022) than in terrestrial animals. Trace amounts of arsenic and mercury were detected in 8% and 4% of Siluriformes samples, respectively, but were not detected at levels that raise concern. On the whole, both the FSIS and FERN CAP datasets provide reassuring evidence of the safety of the FSIS-regulated food supply with regard to the studied elements.

Analysis of Eight Types of Plant-based Milk Alternatives from the United States Market for Target Minerals and Trace Elements

A wide variety of commercial plant-based foods that are marketed and sold as alternatives for milk (plant-based milk alternatives or PBMAs) are available to consumers. In this study, PBMAs from the United States (n=85) were subjected to analysis for target minerals (magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc) to compare their variability across PBMA types, brands, and production lots. Samples were also screened for the environmental contaminant elements arsenic, cadmium, and lead. The eight PBMA types sampled were produced from almond, cashew, coconut, hemp, oat, pea, rice, and soy. Elemental analysis was conducted using microwave-assisted acid digestion followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The results showed that pea PBMAs contained the highest mean amounts of phosphorus, selenium, and zinc, while soy PBMAs were highest in magnesium. Mean amounts of minerals were lower than those found in milk for the majority of PBMA types. There was significant variation (P<0.05) in amounts of minerals across the majority of product brands. The amounts of phosphorus and magnesium varied across production lots (P<0.05), but the absolute value of these differences was low. Total arsenic was highest in rice PBMAs; amounts of cadmium and lead across PBMAs were generally found at low or non-quantifiable amounts. These results underscore the importance of generating analytical data on the elemental composition of products within the rapidly growing category of PBMA.

Trace elements in Foodstuffs from the Mediterranean Basin-Occurrence, Risk Assessment, Regulations, and Prevention strategies: A review

Trace elements (TEs) are chemical compounds that naturally occur in the earth's crust and in living organisms at low concentrations. Anthropogenic activities can significantly increase the level of TEs in the environment and finally enter the food chain. Toxic TEs like cadmium, lead, arsenic, and mercury have no positive role in a biological system and can cause harmful effects on human health. Ingestion of contaminated food is a typical route of TEs intake by humans. Recent data about the occurrence of TEs in food available in the Mediterranean countries are considered in this review. Analytical methods are also discussed. Furthermore, a discussion of existing international agency regulations will be given. The risk associated with the dietary intake of TEs was estimated by considering consumer exposure and threshold values such as Benchmark dose lower confidence limit and provisional tolerable weekly intake established by the European Food Safety Authority and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, respectively. Finally, several remediation approaches to minimize TE contamination in foodstuffs were discussed including chemical, biological, biotechnological, and nanotechnological methods. The results of this study proved the occurrence of TEs contamination at high levels in vegetables and fish from some Mediterranean countries. Lead and cadmium are more abundant in foodstuffs than other toxic trace elements. Geographical variations in TE contamination of food crops clearly appear, with a greater risk in developing countries. There is still a need for the regular monitoring of these toxic element levels in food items to ensure consumer protection.

Region, vintage, and grape maturity co-shaped the ionomic signatures of the Cabernet Sauvignon wines

The ionic elements in wine and in vineyards are gaining attention due to characterization of the wine traits, wine origin tracing, and vine nutrient judging. In this experiment, 19 elements were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in 69 wine samples from 4 regions, 3 vintages, and 3 grape maturity levels. Furthermore, the elements related to vine development, such as N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, Zn and Cu in the vineyard soil and petioles were determined. Two orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (O2PLS-DA) showed that K, Mn, Co, Sr, B, Si, Pb, Ni, Cu, and Zn were important elements in distinguishing the regions. High-temperature vintages can bring wines with high levels of Sr in wine. Na, Ca, K, Mg, Rb, Al, Rb, Pb and Fe can be used as signature elements to distinguish wines made from 2 grape maturities. And Cu, Zn, and Mn were the key elements used to differentiate the petioles in the 4 regions. Partial square regression (PLSR) analysis showed that soil pH was positively correlated with Al, B, Ba, K, Pb, Mn, Sr and Rb in wine, and K in wine was significantly positively correlated with element K in the soil. In conclusion, the elemental contents in wine are shaped by the combination of origin, vintage and grape maturity, while some key elements can be used as indicators of origin traceability.

Perinatal exposure to foodborne inorganic nanoparticles: A role in the susceptibility to food allergy?

Food allergy (FA) is an inappropriate immune response against dietary antigens. Various environmental factors during perinatal life may alter the establishment of intestinal homeostasis, thereby predisposing individuals to the development of such immune-related diseases. Among these factors, recent studies have emphasized the chronic dietary exposure of the mother to foodborne inorganic nanoparticles (NP) such as nano-sized silicon dioxide (SiO2), titanium dioxide (TiO2) or silver (Ag). Indeed, there is growing evidence that these inorganic agents, used as food additives in various products, as processing aids during food manufacturing or in food contact materials, can cross the placental barrier and reach the developing fetus. Excretion in milk is also suggested, hence continuing to expose the neonate during a critical window of susceptibility. Due to their immunotoxical and biocidal properties, such exposure may disrupt the host-intestinal microbiota's beneficial exchanges and may interfere with intestinal barrier and gut-associated immune system development in fetuses then the neonates. The resulting dysregulated intestinal homeostasis in the infant may significantly impede the induction of oral tolerance, a crucial process of immune unresponsiveness to food antigens. The current review focuses on the possible impacts of perinatal exposure to foodborne NP during pregnancy and early life on the susceptibility to developing FA.

Analysis of Minerals and Toxic Elements in Commonly Consumed Herbal Medicines in Zahedan, Iran, and Associated Human Health Risk Assessment

ABSTRACT

Herbal medicines (HMDs) are widely used in some countries. However, a consumer's health may be threatened when pollutants are present in HMDs and a high quantity of these medications is consumed. This work was conducted to evaluate the accumulation of toxic elements and the potential human health risks associated with high consumption of HMDs in Zahedan, Iran. In this study, 15 brands of popular HMDs were selected from five pharmacies. In each pharmacy, three HMD samples were randomly chosen, for a total of 225 samples, and evaluated for 11 elements. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry was used to analyze cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and aluminum (Al) in each sample. Total arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. The human health risk of each element from ingestion of each HMD was estimated. The mean concentrations of these elements in different types of HMDs were highly variable and significantly different within the same type of HMD (P < 0.001). All samples contained detectable concentrations of target elements. However, the mean concentrations of each element in all HMDs were significantly lower than the legal limit published by the World Health Organization. The outcomes of this work indicated that for both children and adults, the target hazard quotient (THQ) for each metal and the hazard index (HI) for all metals in all types of HMDs were significantly lower than the acceptable limit (THQ and HI = 1). The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for each carcinogenic metal and the total carcinogenic risk (TCR) for all carcinogenic metals also were lower than the acceptable limit (ILCR and TCR = 10-4).

HIGHLIGHTS

Development of a Novel UPLC-MS/MS Method for the Simultaneous Determination of 16 Mycotoxins in Different Tea Categories

The contamination of potential mycotoxins in tea production and consumption has always been a concern. However, the risk monitoring on multiple mycotoxins remains a challenge by existing methods due to the high cost and complex operation in tea matrices. This research has developed a simple ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry strategy based on our homemade purification column, which can be applied in the detections of mycotoxins in complex tea matrices with high-effectively purifying and removing pigment capacity for 16 mycotoxins. The limits of detection and the limits of quantification were in the ranges of 0.015~15.00 and 0.03~30.00 µg·kg⁻¹ for 16 mycotoxins, respectively. Recoveries from mycotoxin-fortified tea samples (0.13~1200 µg·kg⁻¹) in different tea matrices ranged from 61.27 to 118.46%, with their relative standard deviations below 20%. Moreover, this method has been successfully applied to the analysis and investigation of the levels of 16 mycotoxins in major categories of tea and the monitoring of multiple mycotoxins in processed samples of ripened Pu-erh. In conclusion, the proposed strategy is simple, effective, time-saving, and low-cost for the determination of a large number of tea samples.

Occurrence of Ethyl Carbamate in Foods and Beverages: Review of the Formation Mechanisms, Advances in Analytical Methods, and Mitigation Strategies

ABSTRACT

Ethyl carbamate (EC) is a process contaminant that can be formed as a by-product during fermentation and processing of foods and beverages. Elevated EC concentrations are primarily associated with distilled spirits, but this compound has also been found at lower concentrations in foods and beverages, including breads, soy sauce, and wine. Evidence from animal studies suggests that EC is a probable human carcinogen. Consequently, several governmental institutions have established allowable limits for EC in the food supply. This review includes EC formation mechanisms, occurrence of EC in the food supply, and EC dietary exposure assessments. Current analytical methods used to detect EC will be covered, in addition to emerging technologies, such as nanosensors and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Various mitigation methods have been used to maintain EC concentrations below allowable limits, including distillation, enzymatic treatments, and genetic engineering of yeast. More research in this field is needed to refine mitigation strategies and develop methods to rapidly detect EC in the food supply.

HIGHLIGHTS

An Investigation of Toxic Metal Levels (Pb, Cd, Cr, As, Hg) in Dried Porphyra and Laminaria Collected from Coastal Cities, China

This investigation was aimed at determining the concentration levels of five toxic heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, and mercury) in dried Porphyra and Laminaria samples from coastal city of China. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used for determination of lead, cadmium and total arsenic. Atomic fluorescence spectrometry was used for mercury, and liquid chromatography coupled with ICP-MS was used for arsenic speciation. The mean concentrations of lead, cadmium, chromium, total arsenic, and mercury were 0.96 ± 0.03 mg/kg, 2.62 ± 0.07 mg/kg, 1.64 ± 0.08 mg/kg, 36.67 ± 0.53 mg/kg, and 7.56 ± 0.42 μg/kg for Porphyra samples and 0.61 ± 0.03 mg/kg, 0.48 ± 0.02 mg/kg, 3.78 ± 0.56 mg/kg, 43.85 ± 1.42 mg/kg, and 46.61 ± 2.02 μg/kg for Laminaria samples. The results were comparable with previous similar research. The potential health risk assessment was conducted by comparing the calculated weekly intakes of toxic metals from Porphyra and Laminaria with provisional tolerable weekly intake. Consumption of these seaweeds does not seem to pose a risk for the consumers' health regarding their content of heavy metals. However, the potential health risk of cadmium should not be overlooked for consumers with high intake of Porphyra.

Overview of the American Chemical Society Symposium on Metals and Trace Elements in Food Safety, Health, and Food Quality

A symposium was held at the 2019 American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall National Meeting in San Diego, CA, U.S.A., entitled "Metals Trace Elements in Food Safety, Health, and Food Quality". The 2 day symposium was sponsored by the Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (AGFD) and co-sponsored by the Division of Agrochemicals (AGRO). This symposium was convened to broadly cover advances in the detection of metals/trace elements in food and our understanding of how metals and trace elements impact food safety, food quality, toxicology, and human nutrition. There were 21 presentations from speakers from academia, government, and industry. This introduction provides a brief summary of the presentations and serves as a record of the symposium proceedings.