Food Contaminants

Improving scientific knowledge on food contaminants to ensure safer products

Background

Food contaminants are substances that may be present in certain foodstuffs due to environmental contamination, cultivation practices or production processes. Above certain levels, those substances can pose a threat to human health.

We focus on different types of food contaminants:

Process contaminants or Process-related contaminants – PRC
Process contaminants are substances that form in food or in food ingredients when they undergo chemical changes during processing (as defined by EFSA). An example of such contaminant is 3-MCPD for which the European Commission has set strict maximum levels in foodstuffs.

Natural toxins, mainly mycotoxins and phytotoxins
The World Health Organization defines natural toxins as toxic compounds that are naturally produced by living organisms (link). Those compounds can be harmful to other creatures, including humans, when eaten. Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain fungi and are commonly present in food. They can cause a variety of adverse health effects and pose a serious health threat to both humans and livestock.

Other environmental contaminants
There are a series of other contaminants which can end up in food. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), for example, have been regulated by the European Commission which has established maximum levels.

Objectives

As food contaminants poses a threat to consumers’ health, it is crucial to improve our knowledge about them. As such, the Food Contaminants Task Force:

Advances scientific knowledge on food contaminants – process-related contaminants, natural toxins, and other environmental contaminants – particularly focusing on assessing impacts on human health;
Addresses research gaps in toxicity, exposure, and analytical aspects of food contaminants;
Reviews & evaluates mitigation measures and supports for risk management strategies for food contaminants.

Impact

The Task Force works on emerging issues in food contaminants with our multistakeholder approach. Recently, our expert group on mineral oils risk assessment identified the knowledge gaps and research needs during a workshop and subsequent
proceedings by Hochegger et al., 2021.

Our publications and documents are recognized inter- nationally:

The publication by Berthiller et al., 2013 was quoted in the EFSA Risk assessment of ochratoxin A in food (EFSA scientific opinion, 2020);
Our practical guidance to Mitigation of Mycotoxins during Food Processing was recognized as a provider of “integrated solutions crucial for the efficient control and reduction of mycotoxins along food and feed chains” at the 2019 World Mycotoxins Forum;
The publication by Karlovsky et al, 2016 assessing the impact of processing and detoxification treatments on mycotoxins has been accessed more than 21,000 times and cited 235 times, highlighting the quality of the Task Force work on mycotoxins.

For more detailed information, please contact Dr Simeon Bourdoux at sbourdoux@ilsieurope.be or Belinda Antonio at bantonio@ilsieurope.be

Task Force Members


Dr Neil Buck – Chair	General Mills	Corporate Toxicologist	CH
Dr Michelangelo Pascale – Co-Chair	Institute of Food Sciences, ISA-CNR	Director	IT
Dr Michele Suman – Vice-Chair	Barilla G&R Fratelli	Head of Food Safety & Authenticity	IT
Ms Ricarda Enke	ADM	R&D Senior Scientist	DE
Dr Karsten Harms	Südzucker Group	Senior Manager Molecular Biology	DE
Dr Clare Hazel	Premier Foods	Group Science Manager	UK
Ms Sue O’Hagan	PepsiCo International	Director Scientific Affairs	UK
Dr Gloria Pellegrino	Luigi Lavazza	Scientific Research Manager	IT
Dr Daniel Ribera	Cargill	Senior Advisor Regulatory and Scientific Affairs	BE
Dr Gerrit Speijers*	General Health Effects Toxicology Safety Food (GETS)	Retired – Expert in Food Safety	NL
Dr Natalie Thatcher	Mondelēz International	Global Lead for Toxicology	UK
Prof. Armando Venâncio*	Center of biological engineering - Univerity of Minho	Associate Professor	PT
Dr Siméon Bourdoux	ILSI Europe	Scientific Project Manager	BE

* Scientific Advisor

Expert Groups

Process-Related Contaminants as an Example for Holistic Dosimetry of Endogenous and Exogenous Exposures

Background & Objectives
In modern risk assessment, deriving accurate exposure estimates can present serious challenges and uncertainties. To some extent, this is due to the fact that today’s consumer exposure is multifactorial, including exposure from exogenous environmental, occupational and food related sources; while in some cases also endogenous exposure adds to the aggregate exposure. For some compounds it has already been well established that endogenous exposure may add substantially to the total exposure. For instance, methanol and ethanol and their oxidative metabolites formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are ingested with food when consuming fruits and certain beverages. Those compounds are, however, also continuously formed endogenously in the course of physiological intermediary energy metabolism. In cases where endogenous exposure is proven to add substantially to the exposome, it becomes essential to better understand the contribution of in vivo background occurrence, as compared to the ingestion from exogenous sources, to arrive at a comprehensive risk assessment.

Output
A peer-reviewed publication providing an overview of the state-of-the-art with respect to understanding the contribution of endogenous exposure to the overall exposure of those process-related contaminants that also occur as constitutive physiological components of mammalian intermediary energy metabolism or other processes in the organism.

Update on Risk-Benefit Assessment of Foods: Approaches to Facilitate Application

Background & Objectives
All foods contain chemical and biological impurities some of which may be viewed as contaminants of toxicological or microbiological relevance, depending on the definition used. Classical risk assessment does not reconcile the benefit to health of the food against the potential effects of the contaminants or the impact of mitigation measures that may be applied to reduce contaminants. A contaminant-centric view of a food can result in an incomplete understanding of the net health benefits of food by groups such as policy makers.
As such, methods for the comparison between benefits and risks have been developed, including the publication of guidance materials. Despite the availability of guidance, there have been a limited number of examples of risk-benefit analysis being used as an input for the risk management of foods by food safety agencies.

Output
This activity will review the evolution and application of risk-benefit assessment since its infancy, and thereby
understand:

Why risk-benefit assessment has not been more widely applied by food safety agencies in Europe?
What are the available applications of RBA since the publication of guidance and what are the lessons
learned?
Whether existing guidance can be amended to improve applicability?
The above learnings will be tested via a limited number of worked examples and summarized in a peer-reviewed publication.

Mineral Oil Risk Assessment: Knowledge Gaps and Roadmap – Completed
In collaboration with the Packaging Materials Task Force

Background & Objectives
This activity is the continuation of the multi-stakeholder workshop held in February 2019.
The array of knowledge gaps on mineral oils in food, including the challenges posed by analytical methodologies and the numerous potential routes of exposure, were the starting point of the workshop. As such, the workshop objectives were to:

Identify the fundamental knowledge gaps to understand the potential risks of mineral oils in food.
Build a multi-stakeholder consensus on the scientific understanding of exposure assessment, hazard characterisation, risk assessment and analytical methods for mineral oils in food.

Output
This activity will result in a recommendation document that will determine potential best practices to align methods available for untargeted screening and future testing.
To develop it, the draft will be discussed at an international workshop organised back-to-back with the 7^th International Packaging Symposium.

Expert Group Members

Process-Related Contaminants as an Example for Holistic Dosimetry of Endogenous and Exogenous Exposure


Prof. Ivonne Rietjens – Chair	University of Wageningen	Professor	NL
Prof. Angela Mally – Vice-Chair	University of Wuerzburg	Professor	DE
Prof. Michael Arand	University of Zurich	Group Leader	CH
Prof. Hermann Bolt	Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors	Professor Emeritus	DE
Prof. Gerhard Eisenbrand	TU Kaiserslautern	Toxicologist	DE
Prof. Andrea Hartwig	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Professor	DE
Dr Nils Hinrichsen	ADM	R&D Manager	DE
Dr Christine Kalisch	University of Wuerzburg	PhD Student	DE
Dr Gloria Pellegrino	Luigi Lavazza	Scientific Research Manager	IT
Dr Daniel Ribera	Cargill	Senior Advisor Regulatory and Scientific Affairs	BE
Dr Natalie Thatcher	Mondelēz International	Global Lead for Toxicology	UK
Dr Siméon Bourdoux	ILSI Europe	Scientific Project Manager	BE

Update on Risk-Benefit Assessment of Foods: Approaches to Facilitate Application


Dr Géraldine Boué – Chair	ONIRIS	Associate Professor	FR
Dr Neil Buck – Vice-Chair	General Mills	Corporate Toxicologist	CH
Dr Ricardo Assunçao	IUEM - Instituto Universitário Egas Moniz	Associate Professor	PT
Dr Nils Billecke	Cargill	Senior Nutrition Scientist	BE
Prof. Alan Boobis	Imperial College London	Emeritus Professor of Toxicology	UK
Dr Ana Catarina Carvalho	University of Porto	PhD Student	PT
Ms Susan O’Hagan	PepsiCo International	Director of Scientific Affairs	UK
Dr Gloria Pellegrino	Luigi Lavazza	Scientific Research Manager	IT
Dr Lea Sletting Jakobsen	Technical University of Denmark	Researcher	DK
Dr Gerrit Speijers	General Health Effects Toxicology Safety Food (GETS)	Retired – Expert in Food Safety	NL
Dr Michele Suman	Barilla G&R Fratelli	Head of Food Safety & Authenticity	IT
Dr Natalie Thatcher	Mondelēz International	Global Lead for Toxicology	UK
Dr Duarte Torres	University of Porto	Assistant Professor	PT
Prof. Armando Venâncio	Center of biological engineering - Univerity of Minho	Professor	PT
Dr Siméon Bourdoux	ILSI Europe	Scientific Project Manager	BE

Mineral Oil Risk Assessment: Knowledge Gaps and Roadmap – Completed


Ms Susan O’Hagan – Chair	PepsiCo International	Director Scientific Affairs	UK
Prof. Giorgia Purcaro – Co-Chair	University of Liege	Professor	BE
Dr Thomas Gude	Swiss Quality Testing Services - SQTS	Department Head	CH
Ms Andrea Hochegger	Technical University Graz	Phd Student	AT
Prof. Erich Leitner	Technical University Graz	Professor	AT
Dr Birgit Mertens	Sciensano	Toxicologist	BE
Prof. Sabrina Moret	University of Udine	Associate Professor	IT
Prof. Fatima Poças	Portuguese Catholic University	Professor	BE
Prof. Thomas Simat	Technical University of Dresden	Professor	DE
Dr Siméon Bourdoux	ILSI Europe	Scientific Project Manager	BE

Publications

White Papers/Reports

Multimedia

Process-Related Compounds and Natural Toxins Task Force – One-pager

Food Contaminants Task Force – One-pager
The Food Contaminants Task Force in a nutshell, an introductory video*
* The video was developed on the occasion of the Annual Symposium

Webinar – New!

Click here to watch the webinar on ‘Mycotoxin Prevention and Control: Food Processing Mitigation Strategies’.

Podcast

Click here to watch the Podcast on ‘Dietary Exposure Mitigation to Chemical Contaminants’.

Improving scientific knowledge on food contaminants to ensure safer products

Background

Objectives

Impact

Task Force Members

Expert Groups

Process-Related Contaminants as an Example for Holistic Dosimetry of Endogenous and Exogenous Exposures

Update on Risk-Benefit Assessment of Foods: Approaches to Facilitate Application

Expert Group Members

Update on Risk-Benefit Assessment of Foods: Approaches to Facilitate Application

Publications

Publication Date

Publication Title

Publication Type

White Papers/Reports

Multimedia