Food additives & contaminants. Part B, Surveillance最新文献

Aflatoxins have been detected as contaminants of oil crops before harvesting and drying, during storage and manufacturing and could be transferable to plant oils. There are more than 20 different types of aflatoxins, among which the most commonly occurring are the B₁, B₂, G₁ and G₂. Concentrations of these four aflatoxins were determined in plant oils from retail shops in China and in crude peanut oil extracted from culled mouldy peanuts by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Overall, aflatoxins were present in 25 of the 63 samples. The four aflatoxins co-existed in vegetable oil, but the content of AFB₁ was usually higher than the other aflatoxins. Particularly in the case of highly contaminated oil samples, AFB₁ accounted for 68% of the total aflatoxins. According to the health risk assessment, the low margin of exposure values from AFB₁ in oils suggests a high level of concern for children.

The European Commission has established legislation for toxic metals in certain foodstuffs in order to protect public health already in 1993. After several amendments, new maximum levels for cadmium and lead in certain foods were set as per 30 and 31 August 2021 for lead and cadmium, respectively. The new Serbian Regulation on "maximum levels of certain contaminants in food" is fully harmonised with this European legislation. The concentrations of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) were determined in 832 samples of 39 species of fruits and processed fruits, collected during the period January 2015 to December 2017. Fruits and fruit products originated from 45 countries, including Serbia. Samples were analysed by inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Concentrations of cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic in fruits and fruit products were compared to these maximum levels (MLs). Overall, measurable Cd, Pb, Hg, and As were found in 377 samples (45.3%). According to the former regulations, the maximum levels of Cd and Pb for analysed fruits and fruit products were exceeded in only 10 samples (1.20%; n = 832): Cd in 6 and Pb in 4 samples, but according to the latest regulations, the maximum levels of Cd and Pb for fruits were exceeded in 196 of the samples (23.9%; n = 820): Cd in 191 and Pb in 5 samples. The increase of ML exceedances shows that attention needs to be paid for compliance of food to the recent MLs for these metals.

A total of 120 spices and herbs bought on the Belgian market have been analysed for occurrence of the four EU regulated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (ΣPAH4). Samples were sorted in three groups according to their use: traditional spices, exotic spices, and herbs. Benzo[a]pyrene has been detected in 56% of samples, while ΣPAH4 were found in 96% of samples. ΣPAH4 were evenly distributed among the three groups with a median content of 7.2 for traditional spices, 5.5 for exotic spices and 6.0 µg kg^-1 for herbs. According to the EU legislation, three samples were exceeding maximal limits, with a maximum ΣPAH4 content of 164 µg kg^-1. The ΣPAH4 dietary intake has been estimated at 1.4 and 27.8 ng day^-1 for average and high consumption, respectively. The risk for the consumer was evaluated by using the margin of exposure (MOE). In all cases, MOE were >20 000, indicating a low concern for the population.

Multi-element analysis combined with chemometric method has been used to investigate the distinguish between Sengcu rice and other types of rice origins in Vietnam. In Sengcu rice, As, Ba Sr, Pb, Ca, Se were confirmed as the key elements for geographical traceability among three fields of Lao Cai, whereas Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Ag, As were major factors to distinguish between Sengcu and other types of rice. Based on linear discriminant analysis and partial least squares-discriminant analysis model, overall correct identification rates distinguishing between Sengcu and other types of rice were approximately 100% in both training and validation test. Moreover, to distinguish geographical origin of Sengcu rice samples, these rates vary from 80% to 99%. These results suggest the presence of food adulteration illustrated in the latter.

This survey reports the monitoring of multi-pesticide residues of some fruits and vegetables sold in the local markets, sampled in 2018-2019, in the Souss Massa region in Morocco. A QuEChERS-LC-MS/MS method for 202 pesticides, belonging to different classes (carbamates, organophosphorus and organonitrogen pesticides) was applied and 51 samples were randomly bought from the local market, belonging to different products (tomato, cucumber, coriander, apricot, parsley, potato, zucchini, green bean, lettuce, strawberry and orange) and analysed for pesticide residues, which were detected in 69% of the samples, below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for some pesticides which represent 14% of the targeted compounds. The most frequently detected compounds were acetamiprid, acibenzolar-s-methyl, abamectin, azoxystrobin, bifenazate, bitertanol, bromuconazole, butoxycarboxim, cyromazine, difenoconazole, epoxiconazole, fenbuconazole, fluometuron, linuron, metaflumizone, metconazole, metribuzin, myclobutanil, pirimicarb, pyraclostrobin, propamocarb, rotenone, trichlorfon, tebuconazole, tetraconazole, thiamethoxam and thiophanate-methyl. The obtained results provide a value to the situation of pesticide residues in Morocco.

In this study, 142 pesticide residues in 245 strawberry samples, gathered from farmers markets or supermarkets in Beijing from June 2017 to May 2018, were investigated. The samples were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). According to the validation data, including linearity, recovery, precision and measurement uncertainty, the method performed well in monitoring pesticide residues and complied with the requirements of the European Guideline SANTE/11813/2017. Among the strawberry samples, 26.0% contained at least one pesticide residue, four of which contained pesticide residues that exceeded the maximum residue limit of China. Carbendazim, pyrimethanil and azoxystrobin were the most frequently detected pesticides in the strawberry samples. Lower bound, middle bound and upper bound values were used to replace left-censored results. In the worst-case scenario, the hazard index (HI) for adults and children was 0.91% and 3.62%, respectively. Carbofuran, bifenazate and pyraclostrobin were identified as the top three contributors to HI.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are secondary plant metabolites that have already been designated as a potential health risk due to their toxicity. Quinolones are antimicrobials related to bacterial resistance, one of the world's largest contemporary public health problems. This study searched for 22 pyrrolizidine alkaloids and 7 quinolones in honey available for sale in the state of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil - employing an analytical method based on LC-Q-TOF-HRMS. No quinolones were identified, while pyrrolizidine alkaloids were found in 39 out of 80 samples, mainly erucifoline (detected in 17% of the samples) and intermedine/lycopsamine (quantified in 27% of the samples). Considering the highest value found, 141.8 µg kg^-1 for senecionine and a consumption of 20 g of honey per person per day, the dietary exposure reached 47.3 ng kg^-1, resulting in a MOE value of 5.010, that might lead to a risk for human health.