Microtoxinas

Mycotoxins Mycotoxins
Rationale - Background Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by various fungi growing in a wide range of food and animal feedstuffs. Their presence is a real problem as it can be assumed that about 20 % of food products (mainly of plant origin) are significantly contaminated. To date several hundred mycotoxins have been identified, deriving from approximately 200different fungi. The main mycotoxins that occur frequently are aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, patulin, fumonisins, trichothecenes (e.g. nivalenol, deoxynivalenol, T-2 toxin) and zearalenone. Among those mycotoxins, aflatoxins represent the main threat world-wide owing to their occurrence and toxicity. It is important to minimise consumer intake and therefore Regulations have been set in more than 70countries in order to restrict the intake of mycotoxins. However, the legal limits vary significantly both from country to country and by mycotoxin type and matrix (e.g. for aflatoxins from 0 to 50 ng/g). Regulatory limits have been also set and drafted in the European Union (e.g. Commission Regulations 466/2001/EC and later amendments) in order to harmonise the internal market. The frequent occurrence,particularly of aflatoxins, has already led to temporary bans of certain “high-risk” foods imported into Europe (e.g. peanuts, pistachios) as the EU limits have been established at relatively low levels comparing to the global situation. To assure that results from food monitoring are accepted especially for legislative purposes (e.g. rejection of imports due to contamination), any method that isused for sampling of goods or analysis thereof must meet established and accepted performance criteria. This is especially important in view of legal actions and trade specifications, as well as monitoring and risk-assessment studies. There is a persistent need for rapid screening as well as exact confirmatory methods. Mycotoxin analysis in developed countries is nowadays mostly based oninstruments with good sensitivity and precision, coupled with ease of automation for throughput. However, taking the initial capital investment into account together with the use of relatively high amounts of organic solvents and the requirement of skilled and experienced staff to operate and maintain the equipment, there is a perceived need for simple but reliable methods to be made available in developingcountries. Moreover those developing countries producing food at risk to be contaminated with mycotoxins, need to be able to analyse the goods before export into the EU in order to comply with European legislation. How does the JRC Contribute? Scientific work on mycotoxins within the JRC concentrates on several important fields to support European legislation and issues of emerging interest forconsumer protection. The outcome of the work leads to validated analytical methods that have been and may be adopted by standardisation bodies (e.g. European Committee for Standardization – CEN or Association of Official Analytical Chemists – AOAC). In addition, surveillance studies on particular mycotoxins and specific food matrices are being performed. Method development and validation: The JRChas been carrying out applied research on mycotoxins in close collaboration with several EU Member States’ laboratories since 1996, mainly to develop and validate analytical methods. Work performed within a European Shared Cost Action project focused on reliable and sensitive methods for the determination of aflatoxins in several food commodities (e.g. peanut butter, pistachio paste, fig paste andpaprika powder), including baby food at very low levels [1]. The JRC participated likewise in a project on method development and validation for determination of fumonisins in various maizebased food matrices [2]. Two videos have been produced in order to show the main features of the analytical methods. Upon request of DG Agriculture and DG Health and Consumer Protection the JRC has validated...