Food Additives and Contaminants Part A-chemistry Analysis Control Exposure & Risk Assessment最新文献

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most commonly used packaging materials for beverages. The increased use of PET has contributed to the rise in plastic waste. Recycled PET (R-PET) is a solution to address this environmental issue. This study aims to determine the migration level of Pb, Cd, Hg, and Sb in PET bottles, evaluate the effect of plastic types (virgin PET and R-PET) and testing conditions (according to BPOM following national regulation and EU following international regulation) on the migration from heavy metals into food. Sixty test samples of virgin PET and R-PET bottles, obtained from four packaging industries in Indonesia, were analyzed for Cd, Hg, Pb, and Sb concentrations using ICP-MS. The results showed that the highest concentrations of heavy metal migration for Cd and Pb were in a virgin PET sample according to BPOM, respectively, at 28 ± 2 ng/L and 636 ± 22 ng/L. Meanwhile, the highest concentrations of Hg and Sb were in a R-PET sample according to EU, respectively, at 469 ± 91 ng/L and 5042 ± 617 ng/L. There was a significant difference in heavy metal levels between the two types of plastic (virgin PET and R-PET) and two testing conditions (BPOM and EU). However, all the obtained concentrations were below the permitted limits of national and EU regulations.

Assessing the contamination of paper and board (P&B) food packaging materials poses significant challenges due to the sensitivity limits of analytical methods and the low precision of sampling processes. This study aims to enhance the understanding of P&B food packaging contamination by investigating the distribution of contaminants at different scales using a combination of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. A total of 36 substances were targeted, including phthalates, photoinitiators, and bisphenol A. Key findings reveal that intra-packaging variability can lead to concentration variations by a factor of 2-7. Recycled materials generally exhibit higher contamination levels, with concentrations of certain contaminants reaching up to 700 mg/kg. Microscopy, including confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and Raman micro-spectroscopy, enabled the identification and differentiation of contaminants, highlighting specific marker molecules and characteristic Raman bands. The study underscores the necessity of comprehensive sampling strategies, advocating for the grinding of entire packaging to obtain representative samples. The introduction of contamination "fingerprints," based on occurrences and correlations between concentrations, offers a promising approach for hazard identification and risk assessment. Overall, the findings contribute to the development of safer and more sustainable food packaging solutions, emphasizing the need for improved analytical techniques and standardized sampling methods in the context of increasing use of recycled materials.

Dental Fluorosis (DF) is one of the negative outcomes of excessive fluoride (F) intake through food sources. This systematic review aimed to compare F content in two important food sources for infants, Mother's Milk (MoM) and Infant Formula (IF), and then evaluate the risk of DF related to F in those two types of food. For this purpose, 181 studies were initially found by searching the relevant keywords in widely recognized databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, and PubMed. Then, 29 final studies were selected considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results showed that the F level of MoM in five out of nine (55.5%) studies and its overall average worldwide does not comply with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guideline (100 µg/L). Therefore, MoM's value of F must be continuously monitored, and risk mitigation solutions must be used to reduce F. Accordingly, tracking F in drinking water, tea, and food consumed by lactating mothers (LMs) was the essential measure that could lead to the reduction of F of MoM. The level of F of IF was much lower than its value in MoM. The estimated hazard quotient (HQ) of DF for both types of food was lower than the acceptable level (HQ = 1), but, due to other sources of F intake, it is necessary to use control solutions to reduce the level of F in MoM and IF consumed by infants.

Geographical origin authentication of onions has become significant owing to origin labelling fraud in South Korea. Various analytical techniques based on stable isotope ratios, organic and inorganic constituents, or their combinations, can distinguish agricultural products geographically. However, studies on the geographical classification of South Korean and Chinese onions using stable isotopes and minerals remain scarce. This study aimed to discriminate geographically between South Korean and Chinese onions using stable isotope ratios (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, and δ³⁴S) and mineral contents (K, Ca, Mg, Na, P, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, and Sr) combined with multivariate statistical analysis. Fifty-eight onion samples cultivated in South Korea and China were collected in 2023. The two stable isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N and δ³⁴S) and six minerals (K, Ca, Na, Fe, Zn, and Sr) significantly differed between these onions. These variables were applied in orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis to classify the onion samples regionally. The predictive ability and goodness-of-fit parameters (R²X and R²Y) were 0.671, 0.383, and 0.677, respectively. K, Sr, δ³⁴S, and Na served as potential markers contributing to the classification. Therefore, stable isotopes and mineral elements may serve as effective indicators for the geographical discrimination of South Korean and Chinese onion samples using multivariate analyses.

Cocoa is a high value product and therefore a potential target for economic adulteration with less expensive ingredients. Carob flour is less expensive than cocoa powder and is frequently cited as a potential cocoa substitute. While carob has legitimate uses as a cocoa replacement, these characteristics also make it a potential adulterant of cocoa powder. Direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) is an ambient ionization MS technique that can be used to rapidly interrogate samples. Samples of cocoa powders, carob flours, and mixtures of the two were extracted with buffer and interrogated by DART-MS. The mass spectra were used to develop models to distinguish between cocoa powder and cocoa powder adulterated with carob. A principal component-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) model was used to discriminate between cocoa powder and cocoa powder amended with 15% carob flour. The accuracy using internal validation was 100%. Using an external validation dataset, the accuracy, precision, and recall were 96.0%, 94.8%, and 97.3%, respectively. These results demonstrate that DART-MS can be used to discriminate between cocoa powder and cocoa powder adulterated with 15% carob.

A tiered intake assessment approach is presented and applied to derive estimates of maximum potential global propylene glycol (PG) intake from beverage sources. The US and UK markets served as surrogates for the world and the EU region, respectively, to determine the maximum potential exposure for PG in various subpopulations, including brand-loyal consumers. Conservative intake estimates for PG used in non-alcoholic beverages were calculated for toddlers less than 3 years (y), young children 3-9 y, adolescents 10-17 y, adults 18-64 y, elderly 65-74 y, very elderly 75+ y, based on assumed uses in high beverage consumption markets, leveraging either the 2-day food consumption data from the 2013-2016 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey or the 4-day food consumption data from the 2008-2017 UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme. This study shows that safety of PG in beverages at proposed use levels up to 3,000 mg kg^-1 can be supported for any geography, based not only on a refined budget method approach but also on a refined deterministic approach when applying the proposed safe intake (pADI) of 62.5 mg kg bw^-1day^-1. In all refined assessments, intake estimates across all age groups fell close to or well below the pADI even among high consumers at the 95^th percentile.

The formation and occurrence of acrylamide in carbohydrate-rich foods has been extensively studied over the course of the past few decades. However, the emergence of plant-based meat alternatives presents a new challenge in this field. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of acrylamide in commercially available plant-based meat alternatives before and after heat treatment. Trace levels of acrylamide were detected in all samples before heat-treatment, while the concentrations increased in 11 samples out of 16 after heat-treatment. The highest concentration of acrylamide increased from 65.7 ± 6.6 µg kg^-1 before to 119 ± 12 µg kg^-1 after heat-treatment. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that besides macronutrient composition, the use of additives and processing techniques have a strong influence on acrylamide formation in plant-based meat alternatives. The latter was supported by the analysis of self-made meat alternative models that were prepared using only the base ingredients.

Pyrethroids are synthetic chemicals that account for 16% of the international insecticide market and have been shown to be of varying toxicity to different species. There are various methods available for detecting pyrethroids in agricultural products, but these products must be pre-treated to remove interference from the food matrix, such as through dispersion liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME). This study employed two experimental design methods to optimize the continuous and discontinuous experimental parameters of DLLME and investigated whether DLLME combined with GC-NICI-MS is effective for detecting pyrethroids in agricultural products. The Taguchi design with an L9(34) orthogonal array and response surface methodology were employed to optimize the discontinuous and continuous parameters of the DLLME process, respectively. To validate the performance of GC-NICI-MS after optimized DLLME, pyrethroids in mixed standard solutions at levels ranging from 0.02 to 50.00 µg/L were measured, and the resultant calibration curves were fitted. Adequate linearity was found for the six investigated pyrethroids (r = 0.9908-0.9960). The limits of detection and quantification ranged from 0.005 to 0.035 µg/L and 0.02 to 0.1 µg/L, respectively. The proposed approach simplifies the optimization of parameters compared to reported methods and achieves considerably lower limits of detection. The concept of mixed application based on the dual experimental design method can be applied to other regulated compounds to enhance the safety of agricultural products. The feasibility of the method was confirmed by successfully detecting pyrethroids in 13 types of teas, fruit, and vegetables.

Brazil is an influential and successful food-producing country, where we can highlight artisanal cheeses gaining visibility in foreign markets. Some of these cheeses are made from raw milk, making them susceptible to contamination by microorganisms, including fungi, which can produce harmful mycotoxins. Feed contaminated with aflatoxin B1, when consumed by dairy animals, is metabolized and transformed into aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), which is excreted in milk. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the occurrence of AFM1 in artisanal cheeses from two Brazilian states: Minas Gerais and São Paulo. This toxin was extracted from 10 g of sample and 50 ml pepsin solution. An aliquot of the extract was passed through an immunoaffinity column, eluted, and dried under nitrogen. For the analysis of the detection and quantification of AFM1, the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) fluorescence detection system was used. A total of 130 samples were analyzed; 41 tested positive for AFM1, while 89 were negative. Out of 41 positive samples, only two were above the maximum tolerated limit by ANVISA of 2.5 µg/kg. These results show the importance of investigating the occurrence of AFM1 in artisanal cheeses, aiming to prevent and increase food safety.

Managing deoxynivalenol (DON) risks is crucial for the sustainability of small grain farms. One approach involves profitable utilization of contaminated grain resources, addressing potential losses from food safety concerns. This study explored distillation as a high-value alternative for utilizing DON-contaminated grain. Naturally DON-contaminated rye and wheat were used in two pilot-scale distillation runs involving milling, mashing, fermentation, and distillation. The ground grain, slurry, fermented mash, and post-distillation mash were sampled during process. For the distilled spirit, 29 fractionated samples, each containing 125 ml, were collected starting with the first drop of liquor. The fractionated samples were sequentially combined into 6 pooled samples of up to 5 individual fractions. If a pooled sample had a DON level above the lower limit of quantification, samples of the pool were tested individually. All distillate samples were tested by ELISA with a limit of quantification at 0.05 µg/ml and a limit of detection at 0.01 µg/ml. For both rye and wheat runs, DON levels in all distillate fractions were consistently below 1 µg/ml, reducing from barely quantifiable to below 0.01 µg/ml. The DON levels in ground rye and wheat were 3.62 and 2.69 µg/g, respectively. In the rye distilled spirit, the first pooled sample had a DON level of 0.1 µg/ml, and the first two fractions of that pool had DON levels of 0.1 and 0.06 µg/ml. In the wheat distilled spirit, the first pooled sample had a DON level of 0.05 µg/ml, and the first fraction of that pool had DON level of 0.12 µg/ml. All other distilled spirits had DON levels below 0.01 µg/ml. The results showed that distilled liquor from DON-contaminated rye and wheat contains very low DON levels at most. From a food safety perspective, considering DON-contaminated grain as an ingredient for distilled spirits appears viable.