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Editorial overview: Food toxicology
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ScienceDirect Editorial overview: Food toxicology Bruno De Meulenaer Current Opinion in Food Science 2015, 6:vii–viii For a complete overview see the Issue Available online 18th December 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2015.12.003 2214-7993/# 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bruno De Meulenaer
Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] Bruno De Meulenaer received his engineering degree and his PhD in Applied Biological Sciences-Chemistry from Ghent University. He is professor in food chemistry and chemical food safety at the Department of Food Safety and Food Quality (nutriFOODchem group) at Ghent University. His international research team is mainly working on mycotoxin issues in the South, the formation of process contaminants in collaboration with industry and government, the behavior and detection of allergenic proteins in foods, the chemical interactions between food contact materials and foods and studies as well oxidation processes in foods, with a special emphasis on the interaction between lipid oxidation products and proteins.
www.sciencedirect.com
Food toxicology or chemical food safety is a multidisciplinary and constantly evolving area of crucial importance to all stakeholders of the agro-food sector. Food safety in general is of prime importance and is in fact an absolute necessity in order to consider a potentially edible commodity as food. Hence in the discussion about food security, which unfortunately still is an actual debate in parts of the Globe, food safety should be considered as primordial as well. Food safety can be hampered because of chemical, physical and microbiological agents. Decision-makers in the agro-food chain are easily persuaded of the importance of the microbiological safety of foods, as the effects are typically observable in a limited time frame, that is, they are acute. This is fortunately rarely the case with agents affecting the chemical safety of foods. Two major exceptions however confirm this general trend. One of them are food allergens, a chemical food safety issue which seems to be linked to our urbanized living and eating trend and therefore is typically growing in importance. Allergic reactions to foods are typically acute and unfortunately in some cases mortal. The other exceptions are (mostly accidental) contaminations of foods with a particular chemical at such high concentrations that acute effects can be observed. These are fortunately not frequently occurring, but on the other hand are relevant because they can identify unknown risks. Given the fact that some substances present in our food mostly on the long term have a negative impact on our health, is however also a challenge. This is because the causality between a particular health effect and the presence of a particular substance in our diet is not easily proven. Numerous examples can be given in which only after a major contamination/accident in the food or feed industry we started to realize that a particular compound indeed is harmful. Consequently, it is not always easy to put chemical food safety issues on top of the agenda and to make a priority of them. Another challenging element with respect to chemical food safety is to explain to the general public that at a particular level of exposure, a chemical can be safe. Indeed, it is difficult to accept that we can tolerate the presence of particular toxicants in our food, even if the consumer does it unknowingly on a daily basis. This fundamental principle of toxicology and especially its consequences proves difficult to grasp by the general public. This partially explains for instance the reluctance and anxiety of various consumers with respect to the use of food additives or food improvement agents (a topic introduced by Wim Debeuckelaere in the first contribution to this issue), which imply the deliberate addition of (potentially toxic) chemicals to our foods. This also explains some of the somewhat irrational reactions on the recently published IARC-WHO monograph on the relationship between read meat and processed meat consumption and cancer, in which consumers Current Opinion in Food Science 2015, 6:vii–viii
viii Food toxicology
suggest to abandon the consumption of such products totally. Chemical food safety is not a binary system I try to explain to my students: it is not an on-off mechanism. One should spread the risk and the best way to do this, is to have a variable diet. A variable diet seems evident, but it proves even for consumers who can financially afford it, not easy to achieve. Obviously, poorer populations are even more vulnerable for a lack in a variable diet, both in economically booming and developing countries. In rural areas of, for example, sub-Saharan countries in East Africa for instance, the diet of young children can be particularly monotonously based on corn flour. Corn flour is also the major staple for adults, that is, pregnant and lactating women. The case of corn in sub-Saharan East-African countries is particularly dramatic because the crop proves to be very sensitive for infestation of molds and hence for contamination with mycotoxins. Dr. Kimanya explains in his contribution the impact of the exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisins on public health in Eastern Africa, with a particular focus on the health of young children. Research in this field has shown that in addition to the well documented link between cancer and exposure to both groups of mycotoxins, other toxic outcomes should be considered as well. Indeed, the impact of exposure of these toxins on the retardation of growth is particularly important. This contribution also illustrates the importance of combining epidemiological and bio-marker research in the field of chemical food safety. Consumers’ anxiety towards foods and potentially toxic chemicals they may contain, is certainly intensified by the fact that the distance between food production and consumption is gradually increasing. Obviously, foods always have been prepared, but food preparation is gradually shifting from home to a more industrial environment. This evolution certainly has enabled consumer to get access to a large variety of nutritious foods for an affordable price. As a result however, food ingredients are sourced from around the Globe and food formulation has become increasingly more complex. Due to food preparation, both on a domestic and industrial scale, chemical reactions are induced in foods which mostly are desirable because they improve the color, texture, aroma and flavor of the food. Unfortunately, also toxic compounds can be produced. These process-induced food contaminants were present in the food for as long as man-kind started to prepare foods, but were
Current Opinion in Food Science 2015, 6:vii–viii
dramatically brought to our attention with the famous acrylamide-case in 2002. In his contribution, Dr. Stadler gives a status with respect to another group of process induced contaminants, typically linked to the refining of fats and oils, that is, chlorinated glycidylesters and glycidolesters. This and similar cases illustrate that the whole agro-food chain can and need to collaborate to ensure and improve chemical food safety. Another consequence of the growing distance between food production and consumption is that a majority of our foods today are packed in variety of food contact materials. The fact that these food contact materials are not inert and in fact transfer compounds to the food and thus can impact food safety is well established. Currently legal restrictions on the transfer of such migrating compounds focus especially on well-defined and characterized molecules. It is however realized that also less well characterized or even unknown components can be present in these contact materials: so-called non-intentionally added substances. These represent a particular analytical challenge as it is not evident to identify or quantify an unknown molecule present in trace levels in a complex matrix, despite the spectacular developments in analytical science in the last decades. Dr. Krul explains in her contribution that new and pragmatic approaches in risk assessment are applied for this particular food safety issue. In contrast to the other contributions dealing primarily with organic compounds, the final topic introduced by Dr. Du Laing and Dr. Van de Wiele in this issue deals with the complex risk assessment of arsenic present in foods. This contribution does not only illustrate the complexity of inorganic toxic elements in foods as a result of their speciation or transformation to organo-metal compounds. It illustrates especially the impact of the human colon microbiota on the conversion of toxic elements present in our diet and its impact on risk assessment. This particular aspect is currently not receiving the attention it deserves in the general risk assessment of chemicals present in our diet and will certainly be on the agenda in the future as well. This special section of Current Opinion in Food Science brings information together on five challenging chemical food safety issues and hopefully will give food for thought. I would like to thank the contributors’ and journals manager’s for their support and contribution to this issue.
www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Editorial overview: Food toxicology Bruno De Meulenaer Current Opinion in Food Science 2015, 6:vii–viii For a complete overview see the Issue Available online 18th December 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2015.12.003 2214-7993/# 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bruno De Meulenaer
Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] Bruno De Meulenaer received his engineering degree and his PhD in Applied Biological Sciences-Chemistry from Ghent University. He is professor in food chemistry and chemical food safety at the Department of Food Safety and Food Quality (nutriFOODchem group) at Ghent University. His international research team is mainly working on mycotoxin issues in the South, the formation of process contaminants in collaboration with industry and government, the behavior and detection of allergenic proteins in foods, the chemical interactions between food contact materials and foods and studies as well oxidation processes in foods, with a special emphasis on the interaction between lipid oxidation products and proteins.
www.sciencedirect.com
Food toxicology or chemical food safety is a multidisciplinary and constantly evolving area of crucial importance to all stakeholders of the agro-food sector. Food safety in general is of prime importance and is in fact an absolute necessity in order to consider a potentially edible commodity as food. Hence in the discussion about food security, which unfortunately still is an actual debate in parts of the Globe, food safety should be considered as primordial as well. Food safety can be hampered because of chemical, physical and microbiological agents. Decision-makers in the agro-food chain are easily persuaded of the importance of the microbiological safety of foods, as the effects are typically observable in a limited time frame, that is, they are acute. This is fortunately rarely the case with agents affecting the chemical safety of foods. Two major exceptions however confirm this general trend. One of them are food allergens, a chemical food safety issue which seems to be linked to our urbanized living and eating trend and therefore is typically growing in importance. Allergic reactions to foods are typically acute and unfortunately in some cases mortal. The other exceptions are (mostly accidental) contaminations of foods with a particular chemical at such high concentrations that acute effects can be observed. These are fortunately not frequently occurring, but on the other hand are relevant because they can identify unknown risks. Given the fact that some substances present in our food mostly on the long term have a negative impact on our health, is however also a challenge. This is because the causality between a particular health effect and the presence of a particular substance in our diet is not easily proven. Numerous examples can be given in which only after a major contamination/accident in the food or feed industry we started to realize that a particular compound indeed is harmful. Consequently, it is not always easy to put chemical food safety issues on top of the agenda and to make a priority of them. Another challenging element with respect to chemical food safety is to explain to the general public that at a particular level of exposure, a chemical can be safe. Indeed, it is difficult to accept that we can tolerate the presence of particular toxicants in our food, even if the consumer does it unknowingly on a daily basis. This fundamental principle of toxicology and especially its consequences proves difficult to grasp by the general public. This partially explains for instance the reluctance and anxiety of various consumers with respect to the use of food additives or food improvement agents (a topic introduced by Wim Debeuckelaere in the first contribution to this issue), which imply the deliberate addition of (potentially toxic) chemicals to our foods. This also explains some of the somewhat irrational reactions on the recently published IARC-WHO monograph on the relationship between read meat and processed meat consumption and cancer, in which consumers Current Opinion in Food Science 2015, 6:vii–viii
viii Food toxicology
suggest to abandon the consumption of such products totally. Chemical food safety is not a binary system I try to explain to my students: it is not an on-off mechanism. One should spread the risk and the best way to do this, is to have a variable diet. A variable diet seems evident, but it proves even for consumers who can financially afford it, not easy to achieve. Obviously, poorer populations are even more vulnerable for a lack in a variable diet, both in economically booming and developing countries. In rural areas of, for example, sub-Saharan countries in East Africa for instance, the diet of young children can be particularly monotonously based on corn flour. Corn flour is also the major staple for adults, that is, pregnant and lactating women. The case of corn in sub-Saharan East-African countries is particularly dramatic because the crop proves to be very sensitive for infestation of molds and hence for contamination with mycotoxins. Dr. Kimanya explains in his contribution the impact of the exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisins on public health in Eastern Africa, with a particular focus on the health of young children. Research in this field has shown that in addition to the well documented link between cancer and exposure to both groups of mycotoxins, other toxic outcomes should be considered as well. Indeed, the impact of exposure of these toxins on the retardation of growth is particularly important. This contribution also illustrates the importance of combining epidemiological and bio-marker research in the field of chemical food safety. Consumers’ anxiety towards foods and potentially toxic chemicals they may contain, is certainly intensified by the fact that the distance between food production and consumption is gradually increasing. Obviously, foods always have been prepared, but food preparation is gradually shifting from home to a more industrial environment. This evolution certainly has enabled consumer to get access to a large variety of nutritious foods for an affordable price. As a result however, food ingredients are sourced from around the Globe and food formulation has become increasingly more complex. Due to food preparation, both on a domestic and industrial scale, chemical reactions are induced in foods which mostly are desirable because they improve the color, texture, aroma and flavor of the food. Unfortunately, also toxic compounds can be produced. These process-induced food contaminants were present in the food for as long as man-kind started to prepare foods, but were
Current Opinion in Food Science 2015, 6:vii–viii
dramatically brought to our attention with the famous acrylamide-case in 2002. In his contribution, Dr. Stadler gives a status with respect to another group of process induced contaminants, typically linked to the refining of fats and oils, that is, chlorinated glycidylesters and glycidolesters. This and similar cases illustrate that the whole agro-food chain can and need to collaborate to ensure and improve chemical food safety. Another consequence of the growing distance between food production and consumption is that a majority of our foods today are packed in variety of food contact materials. The fact that these food contact materials are not inert and in fact transfer compounds to the food and thus can impact food safety is well established. Currently legal restrictions on the transfer of such migrating compounds focus especially on well-defined and characterized molecules. It is however realized that also less well characterized or even unknown components can be present in these contact materials: so-called non-intentionally added substances. These represent a particular analytical challenge as it is not evident to identify or quantify an unknown molecule present in trace levels in a complex matrix, despite the spectacular developments in analytical science in the last decades. Dr. Krul explains in her contribution that new and pragmatic approaches in risk assessment are applied for this particular food safety issue. In contrast to the other contributions dealing primarily with organic compounds, the final topic introduced by Dr. Du Laing and Dr. Van de Wiele in this issue deals with the complex risk assessment of arsenic present in foods. This contribution does not only illustrate the complexity of inorganic toxic elements in foods as a result of their speciation or transformation to organo-metal compounds. It illustrates especially the impact of the human colon microbiota on the conversion of toxic elements present in our diet and its impact on risk assessment. This particular aspect is currently not receiving the attention it deserves in the general risk assessment of chemicals present in our diet and will certainly be on the agenda in the future as well. This special section of Current Opinion in Food Science brings information together on five challenging chemical food safety issues and hopefully will give food for thought. I would like to thank the contributors’ and journals manager’s for their support and contribution to this issue.
www.sciencedirect.com