Dietary Exposure to Fumonisins and Health Risk Assessment in the Sixth China Total Diet Study - China, 2015-2020

Mycotoxins in grains (products), Gansu province, China and risk assessment

This study aimed to estimate the dietary exposure towards mycotoxins of residents in Gansu province, China, from 2014-2020 through surveillance data on mycotoxins in grains and grain products. Fumonisin B1 (FB1), Deoxynivalenol (DON), 3- and 15-Acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3-ADON and 15-ADON), Tentoxin (TEN), Tenuazonic acid (TeA) and Zearalenone (ZEN) in 863 grains and grain products were detected by HPLC-MS and UPLC-MS. DON was the most detected mycotoxin of all samples. For women, the average dietary exposure to DON was 1.49 μg/kg bw/day, with 55.8% of the individuals eating dried noodles exceeding tolerable daily intake. The hazard quotient values were 1.24-12.60, so greater than 1 for DON at the average, 90th percentile, 95th percentile, and maximum levels: 44.6% of the HQ values for men and 45.7% for women were greater than 1.

Carbon nanotubes: a novel innovation as food supplements and biosensing for food safety

Recently, nanotechnology has emerged as an extensively growing field. Several important fabricated products including Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are of great importance and hold significance in several industrial sectors, mainly food industry. Recent developments have come up with methodologies for the prevention of health complications like lack of adequate nutrition in our diet. This review delves deeper into the details of the food supplementation techniques and how CNTs function in this regard. This review includes the challenges in using CNTs for food applications and their future prospects in the industry. Food shortage has become a global issue and limiting food resources put an additional burden on the farmers for growing crops. Apart from quantity, quality should also be taken into consideration and new ways should be developed for increasing nutritional value of food items. Food supplementation has several complications due to the biologically active compounds and reaction in the in vivo environment, CNTs can play a crucial role in countering this problem through the supplementation of food by various processes including; nanoencapsulation and nanobiofortification thus stimulating crop growth and seed germination rates. CNTs also hold a key position in biosensing and diagnostic application for either the quality control of the food supplements or the detection of contagions like toxins, chemicals, dyes, pesticides, pathogens, additives, and preservatives. Detection such pathogens can help in attaining global food security goal and better production and provision of food resources. The data used in the current review was collected up to date as of March 31, 2024 and contains the best of our knowledge. Data collection was performed from various reliable and authentic literatures comprising PubMed database, Springer Link, Scopus, Wiley Online, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Research related to commercially available CNTs has been added for the readers seeking additional information on the use of CNTs in various economic sectors.

Multi-mycotoxin determination in plant-based meat alternatives and exposure assessment

The aim of this study was to fill in the gap regarding the occurrence of mycotoxins in plant-based meat alternatives. Hence, a multi-mycotoxin method (aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, fumonisins, zearalenone, and mycotoxins from the Alternaria alternata genera) was developed followed by an exposure assessment for the Italian consumers' exposure to mycotoxins. A total of 13 meat alternatives samples based on soy, pea, chickpea, lupin, and seitan were analysed. With the exception of seitan, all of the remaining samples were contaminated with one mycotoxin or mixtures of up to seven mycotoxins. The level of contamination was as low as 0.2 μg/kg alternariol methyl ether and as high as 66.9 μg/kg fumonisin B1. To analyse the exposure to mycotoxins due to plant-based meat alternatives consumption we used the consumption meat data from the Food and Agriculture Organization for Italian adult consumers and simulated a full replacement of meat with plant-based meat alternatives. Based on our model, consumption of plant-based meat alternatives led to a non-tolerable exposure to alternariol (hazard index (HI) > 1) in pea-based burger and soy + wheat-based steak, while samples contaminated with aflatoxins, respectively ochratoxin A, indicated a health concern related to liver and renal cancer (margin of exposure (MOE) < 10,000). This is the first study that presents the co-occurrence of mycotoxins in multiple plant-based meat alternatives. Moreover, these results indicate that there is a need for policymakers to consider the regulation of mycotoxins in plant-based meat alternatives in order to ensure consumers' safety.

Legacy and novel brominated flame retardants in animal-derived foods from China Total Diet Study (CTDS): Temporal trends, evidence of substitution, and dietary exposure assessment

Based on the 6th China Total Diet Study (CTDS) conducted in 2016-2019, the occurrence of both legacy and novel brominated flame retardants (BFRs) was measured in animal-derived foods collected across China. Most BFRs could be frequently detected in food samples, indicating their ubiquity in the environment. Decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), a typical novel BFR, presented the highest contamination level, whereas legacy BFRs, including decabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), still presented high detection frequencies and relatively abundant proportions in total BFRs. Compared with previous CTDSs conducted from 2007 to 2011, the levels and estimated dietary intakes (EDIs) of most BFRs showed a significant downtrend, which suggested that flame retardant consumption in China has transferred from legacy BFRs to novel BFRs (mainly DBDPE) and from BFRs to other kinds of flame retardants. Based on probabilistic estimation, the median EDIs of mainly used BFRs for the Chinese population ranged from 41.0 to 1.67 × 10³ pg/kg bw/day, and meat consumption was the primary source in dietary BFR intake. By conducting the margin of exposure (MOE) approach or comparing with the reference dose (RfD), it can be concluded that daily dietary intakes of BFRs were still unable to cause significant health risks to the general population in China.

Protocatechuic acid: A novel detoxication agent of fumonisin B1 for poultry industry

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is a major fusarium mycotoxin that largely contaminates feedstuffs and foods, posing a health risk to both animals and humans. This mycotoxin can enter the human body directly through contaminated food consumption or indirectly by toxins and their metabolites. In a prior study, feed-borne FB1 is one of the leading mycotoxins in breeder eggs, leading to reduced hatchability and gizzard ulceration in chicken progenies. Currently, no effective way is available to remove FB1 from feeds and human-contaminated foods. We hypothesize that FB1 can be reduced to low risk by protocatechuic acid (PCA). To assess the ability of FB1 to be degraded in vivo, 1 ppm of FB1 was treated with PCA, or D-glucose, or silymarin, or anti-FB1 monoclonal antibody. Our study revealed that both D-glucose and PCA exhibited 53.4 and 71.43% degradation, respectively, at 80°C for 2 h, while 35.15% of FB1 detoxification was determined in the silymarin group at 60°C for 0.5 h. A dose-dependent manner was found after treatment with D-glucose or PCA at 80°C for 2 h. As for detoxification of anti-FB1 monoclonal antibody, the 1:3,000 dilution induced significant FB1 detoxification, accounting for 25.9% degradation at 25°C for 2 h. Furthermore, 50 SPF 11-day-old embryonated eggs were divided into 10 groups, with five eggs per group. Post treatment with PCA or D-glucose, or silymarin or anti-FB1 monoclonal antibody, the treated samples were inoculated into albumens and monitored daily until the hatching day. Consequently, 100% of the chickens survived in the D-glucose group and other control groups, except for the FB1 control group, while 80, 80, and 60% hatching rates were found in the PCA-treated group, the anti-FB1 monoclonal antibody-treated group, and the silymarin-treated group. Additionally, both the FB1 group and the silymarin-treated group yielded lower embryo growth than other groups did. Postmortem, lower gizzard ulceration index was determined in the PCA-treated group and the anti-FB1 monoclonal antibody-treated group compared to those of the silymarin-treated group and D-glucose-treated group. Based on the above evidence, PCA is a promising detoxification to reduce FB1 contamination in the poultry industry, contributing to the eradication of mycotoxin residuals in the food chain and maintaining food security for human beings.