Food Contaminants - ACS Publications - American Chemical Society

Preface This book includes about half the papers presented at the Symposia on Mycotoxins and Food Allergens, held during the 232 American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in San Francisco, California, September 10-14, 2006. The contrast between these two types of harm ful substances with regard to their chemical nature, adverse effects, analysis, and control is clearly illustrated by these papers. Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites that are toxic to animals and plants. Several toxigenic fungi are pathogenic to im portant cereal crops. Fumonisins, trichothecenes, zearalenone, and patulin occur in food crops only as a result of a plant-fungus association; ochratoxin A is produced by species that are not invol ved in a plant-fungus association; and anatoxins are formed by both mechanisms. The toxins themselves encompass a wide range of compounds, several of which have been shown to cause disease in domestic animals and, less frequently, in humans. Toxicology is represented in this book by papers on the measurement of aflatoxin-DNA adducts as biomarkers of long-term risk of disease in people, mechanism of fumonisin B! carcinogenesis, and enhance ment of ochratoxin A toxicity by citrinin. Approaches to controlling mycotoxins include attempts to prevent the formation of the toxins by the fungi, decreasing bioavailability of the toxins, and destroying toxins that have already been produced. The best solution to the problem of mycotoxins is to prevent their formation in crops in the first place, for example by competitive exclusion whereby non-aflatoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus or A. parasiticus are intro duced onto the crops. Biotechnology is helping to provide protection of corn plants (Bt corn) against corn borer damage, thus reducing mycotoxin contamination. One potentially important method of controlling toxicity to animals is to reduce the bioavailability of the toxins, by

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adding sequestering agents such as silicate minerals and yeast-derived products to the feed. Monitoring of the occurrence and levels of mycotoxins in commodities and foods is necessary to divert contaminated materials from human and animal food supplies and is important to estimate human exposure. Methods of analysis for mycotoxins include use of immunoaffinity columns, multifunctional mixed bed immunoaffinity columns, molecularly imprinted polymers, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and qualitative and quantitative lateral flow methods. Examples of application are methods of analysis for trichothecenes in cereal products, fumonisin B in botanical roots, aflatoxin M in milk, anatoxins in peanuts, and ochratoxin A in wine. Food allergenicity is increasingly in the public spotlight. News articles highlight the continuing growth in the numbers of food allergic people, along with the increased risk to those people as a result of broader and more intense sensitization. The underlying reason for the increasing rates of food allergy is a subject of debate and continuing research. It is clear that the causes are in large part environmental, which likely includes the exposure and lack of exposure to microorganisms, parasites, and immune challenges that separate the modern post-indust rial lifestyle from that of our ancestors. The diets in the industrialized West, with its high food allergy rates, expose people to a diversity of food types never before included in the human diet. How an antiseptic environment, food diversity, lack of exposure to immune challenges, and even antibiotics may have a synergism to produce higher rates of food allergenic people still needs much research. The public concern about the rising food allergy rates has been addressed by increased government regulation and intervention both in the United States and in many Euro pean countries. There are two main ways to address food allergy (i.e., medical treatment and prevention). Medical treatment is an active area of research and while there are promising developments the actual treatment of food allergy today has relatively little impact in managing food allergy. The use of epinephrine as a post-exposure treatment for serious food allergies has had a great impact in preventing anaphylaxis deaths following accidental exposure to food allergens. But the primary means to prevent exposure is variations on the theme of avoidance. Consumers and producers


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xii Siantar et al.; Food Contaminants ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.

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work together to provide avoidance mechanisms. For the consumer, vigilance on food items is essential, and for industry a wide variety of controls, including production and product line testing as well as labeling, are used to assist the consumer in making accurate avoidance choices. In the United States, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 came into force of law in 2006, providing for plain language labeling of eight major food allergens. The food allergy papers in this book represent a broad spectrum of the research being done to support avoidance of food allergens. There are important issues of detection and the threshold of that detection. Modern techniques of mass spectroscopy and immunol ogy are highlighted. Computer analysis can attempt to predict whether a new protein might be a food allergen. Such predictions will be useful, especially as genetic modification of food crops continues, to ensure those modifications do not introduce new food allergens. Technology is emerging to approach avoidance from the perspective of avoiding the allergen but not the food itself. Mutants and transgenics can be employed to create low allergen-content versions of otherwise allergenic foods. Whether this will actually mitigate the development of sensitization and manifestation of response in those people already sensitized remains to be determined. While it would have been wonderful for this book and the symposium to have announced the end of food allergies, this unfortunately will take more research and more years. However, with the broad application of avoidance techniques through analysis, labeling, medical testing, and possibly food modification, the rise in food allergy rates can hopefully be slowed and perhaps even reversed.

Darsa P. Siantar Compliance Laboratory Scientific Services Division Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) U.S. Department of the Treasury 490 North Wiget Lane Walnut Creek, CA 94598

xiii Siantar et al.; Food Contaminants ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.

Mary W. Trucksess Food and Drug Administration 5100 Paint Branch Parkway College Park, M D 20740

Peter M. Scott Health Canada, 2203D Sir Frederick Banting Research Centre Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K9, Canada


Eliot M. Herman Plant Genetics Research Unit Danforth Plant Science Center Agriculture Research Service U.S. Department of Agriculture 975 North Warson Road St. Louis, MO 63105

xiv Siantar et al.; Food Contaminants ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.

Acknowledgments


The editors thank the speakers at the symposium who con tributed chapters to this book. We also thank Anthony Glenn and Thomas Whitaker for providing artwork for the cover of the book. Darsa P. Siantar Mary W. Trucksess Peter M. Scott Eliot M. Herman

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Siantar et al.; Food Contaminants ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.

Food Contaminants - ACS Publications - American Chemical Society

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