Human exposure to mycotoxins and their masked forms through cereal-based foods in Belgium

Abstract

In the present study, a quantitative dietary exposure assessment of mycotoxins and their masked forms was conducted on a national representative sample of the Belgian population using the contamination data of cereal-based foods. Cereal-based food products (n = 174) were analysed for the occurrence of deoxynivalenol, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, zearalenone, α-zearalenol, β-zearalenol, T-2-toxin, HT-2-toxin, and their respective masked forms, including, deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside, zearalenone-4-glucoside, α-zearalenol-4-glucoside, β-zearalenol-4-glucoside and zearalenone-4-sulfate.Fiber-enriched bread, bran-enriched bread, breakfast cereals, popcorn and oatmeal were collected in Belgian supermarkets according to a structured sampling plan and analysed during the period from April 2010 till October 2011. The habitual intake of these food groups was estimated from a national representative food intake survey. According to a probabilistic exposure analysis, the mean (and P95) mycotoxin intake for the sum of the deoxynivalenolequivalents, zearalenone-equivalents, and the sum of HT-2-and T-2-toxin for all cereal-based foods was 0.1162 (0.4047, P95), 0.0447 (0.1568, P95) and 0.0258 (0.0924, P95) µg kg -1 body weight day -1 , respectively. These values were below the tolerable daily intake (TDI) levels for deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and the sum of T-2 and HT-2 toxin (1.0, 0.25 and 0.1 µg kg -1 body weight day -1 , respectively). The absolute level exceeding the TDI for all cereal-based foods was calculated, and recorded 0.85%, 2.75% and 4,11% of the Belgian population, respectively. KEYWORDS: mycotoxins,

Scientific Opinion on the risks for human and animal health related to the presence of modified forms of certain mycotoxins in food and feed

“…According to the latest occurrence papers (see De Boevre et al 2013), the modified forms of ZEN (ZELs, ZEN14Glc, ZEN14Sulf, βZEL14Glc, αZEL14Glc) commonly occur together with their precursor in cereal-based food, mainly in bran-and fibre-enriched products. The percentage of occurrence with respect to ZEN ranges from 15 to 110 %, expressed as the sum of all the co-occurring modified forms in each sample (see Section 8, Table 6).…”

Challenges in risk assessment of multiple mycotoxins in food

“…(Sirot et al, 2013;Sprong et al, 2016b). For the exposure assessment studies, food consumption data were mainly obtained from national food consumption surveys, including different data collection methodologies, namely 1-day (Cressey and Reeve, 2013;Han et al, 2014), 2-day (De Boevre et al, 2013;Sprong et al, 2016a;Van de Perre et al, 2015) and 3-day 24-hour recalls (Zhao et al, 2015), 3-day food diary and 7-day food diary (Sirot et al, 2013), all reported in Table 2.…”

“…Although, some authors decided also to include the LOQ in the management of non-detects (García-Moraleja et al, 2015;Sirot et al, 2013). Until now, the assessment of mycotoxin exposure is mainly based on deterministic approaches, however, there are an increasing number of studies applying probabilistic models in last years, as shown in Table 2 Cano-Sancho et al, 2013;De Boevre et al, 2013;Han et al, 2014;Signorini et al, 2012;Van de Perre et al, 2015).…”

“…CanoSancho et al (2013) assessed the exposure of Catalonian (Spain) population to aflatoxins (AFB 1 , AFB 2 , AGB 1 and AFG 2 ) and individual AF risk characterisation was calculated by estimating the MoEs, dividing the BMDL 10 by the average and percentile 95 of the exposure estimates. De Boevre et al (2013) assessed the quantitative dietary exposure of mycotoxins and their modified or masked forms (13 in total) through consumption of cereal-based food products of the Belgian population. The output of exposure (individual and family groups) was compared to the mycotoxins TDI.…”

“…The food safety legislation through mycotoxins risk assessment is in place to control mycotoxins in food and includes single and sum of maximum levels for some mycotoxins in foodstuffs (EC, 2006). Some approaches are now being reported for the first time in the literature concerning the risk assessment of co-occurring mycotoxins in foodstuffs De Boevre et al, 2013;Han et al, 2014) but far more research is required concerning the nature of interactions between multiple mycotoxins until real conclusions could be drawn concerning the health impact of mycotoxin mixtures.…”