Scientific Opinion on Mineral Oil Hydrocarbons in Food

Abstract

Consumers are exposed to a range of mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) via food. Mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) consist of linear and branched alkanes, and alkyl-substituted cyclo-alkanes, whilst mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) include mainly alkyl-substituted polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Products, commonly specified according to their physico-chemical properties, may differ in chemical composition depending on the oil source. Technical grade MOH contain 15 -35 % MOAH, which is minimised in food grade MOSH (white oils). Major sources of MOH in food are food packaging and additives, processing aids, and lubricants. Estimated MOSH exposure ranged from 0.03 to 0.3 mg/kg b.w. per day, with higher exposure in children. Specific production practices of bread and grains may provide additional MOSH exposure. Except for white oils, exposure to MOAH is about 20 % of that of MOSH. Absorption of alkanes with carbon number above C 35 is negligible. Branched and cyclic alkanes are less efficiently oxidised than n-alkanes. MOSH from C 16 to C 35 may accumulate and cause microgranulomas in several tissues including lymph nodes, spleen and liver. Hepatic microgranulomas associated with inflammation in Fischer 344 rats were considered the critical effect. The no-observed-adverse-effect level for induction of liver microgranulomas by the most potent MOSH, 19 mg/kg b.w. per day, was used as a Reference Point for calculating margins of exposure (MOEs) for background MOSH exposure. MOEs ranged from 59 to 680. Hence, background exposure to MOSH via food in 1 On request from the European Commission, Question No EFSA-Q-2010-00170, adopted on 3 May 2012. 2 SUMMARYFollowing a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM Panel) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) in Food. Mineral oil hydrocarbons occur in food both as a result of contamination and from various intentional uses in food production. In order to assess the need for possible regulatory measures as regards MOH in food, EFSA was requested to assess the risks related to their occurrence in food. More specifically, the opinion should evaluate whether new toxicity data are available and whether the current acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) are still applicable, explore whether certain classes (or subclasses) of MOH are more relevant due to their toxicity or to differences in the way they are metabolised by the human body, and identify the different background sources, other than from adulteration or misuse, of MOH occurrence in food. In addition a dietary exposure assessment was requested for the general population and for specific subgroups of the population (e.g. infants, children and people following specific diets), by taking into account the background occurrence of MOH in food. Included in the request was also to advise on MOH and food classes to be included if monitoring were to be set up for their presence in food.The scientific literature and other sources were s...

Re‐evaluation of name of hydrogenated poly‐1‐decene (E 907) as food additive

“…Hydrogenated poly-1-decene is a member of a more general family of hydrocarbons known as POSH which in turn is a subgroup of MOSH and more generally MOH. MOH and MOSH were evaluated by the EFSA CONTAM Panel (EFSA CONTAM Panel, 2012a;Cravedi et al, 2017).…”

A high-sample-throughput LC-GC method for mineral oil determination

“…A series of paperboards and pastas was analyzed, using the methods discussed in Section 2 (reference and fast methods, nonstop and multitransfer modes), to countercheck the reliability of all the approaches when carried out on real samples. Quantification was carried out up to the retention time corresponding to the n-alkane C 35 (important from a toxicological viewpoint [25]), performing a cut at C 25 for both kinds of sample, to highlight possible differences in the more volatile and heavy fractions among the methods.…”

“…Quantification values (below C25 and in the C 25 -C 35 range) relative to the MOSH and the MOAH fractions, in paperboard and pasta samples using the fast and reference methods in nonstop and multitransfer (MTR) modes…”

Evaluation of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) in pure mineral hydrocarbon-based cosmetics and cosmetic raw materials using 1H NMR spectroscopy

“…For monitoring of cosmetic products and medicinal products aiming for health risk assessment, a scarcity of analytical methods was noted. This may be explained because the analysis of mineral oil constituents is extremely difficult, and because of their complexity it has been generally unfeasible to resolve the hydrocarbon mixtures into individual components for quantification 3 . The current method of choice for analysis of hydrocarbons is the application of an online coupled liquid chromatography-gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (LC-GC-FID), which leads to two fractions quantified as sum parameters, MOSH and MOAH 4 .…”