Toxic Substances in Food

Aswita Emmawati
Jurusan Teknologi Hasil Pertanian
Unmul
Definition
 Toxicant (or toxin) was recently defined as a
“substance that has been shown to present some
significant degree of possible risk when consumed
in sufficient quantity by humans or animals”
 Toxin effects is not always potent or acute
Toxic substances and toxic effects
 toxic substances induce toxic effects only if its
concentration is sufficiently high.
 “Everything is poison. There is nothing without
poison. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison.
For example, every food and every drink, if taken
beyond its dose, is poison”
Inherent Toxicant and Contaminant
 Inherent toxicants
 Metabolites produced via biosynthesis by food organisms
under normal growth conditions or stressed conditions
 Contaminants
 Toxicants that directly contaminate foods
 absorbed from the environment by food-producing
organisms
 produced by food organisms from substances that are
absorbed from the environment
 formed during food preparation
Some definitions
 Acute toxicity refers to a toxic response, often immediate,
induced by a single exposure.
 LD (lethal dose)50, the dose of the substance that will kill
50% of a group of exposed animals.
 Chronic toxicity refers to an effect that requires some time
to develop
 TD50 (tumor dose50), the amount of a carcinogen required
 to induce cancer in 50% of a group of exposed animals
 Subchronic feeding test is a “ninety day toxicology study in an
appropriate animal species”
Some definitions
 MTD is the acronym for “maximum tolerated dose.”
 It is the highest level of a test substance that can be fed to an
animal without inducing obvious signs of toxicity
 NOAEL is the acronym for “no observable adverse effect
level.”
 For substances that induce a toxic response (other than
cancer) in chronic feeding tests, the NOAEL is used to
determine an acceptable daily intake (ADI)
 ADI is the acronym for “acceptable daily intake.”
 By convention, for noncarcinogens, it is set at 1/100th of the
NOAEL.
Trans Fatty Acid
 Some toxicant substances formed through processing
 TFA form in hydrogenizing vegetable oil to produce
margarine or vegetable shortening
Cis- and Trans-Fatty Acids Compared

Copyright 2005 Wadsworth Group, a division of Thomson Learning

PAHs
 Some of these, specially
benzopyrene have been found to be
carcinogenic
 Usually occur in smoked foods
 Aromatic hydrocarbons are
constituents of wood smoke and may
be transferred to foods during
smoking
 May be carcinogenic and mutagenic
Case History: Benzopyrene from meat on a barbecue

Natural molecules can become

dangerous during food
preparation!
Improperly use Additives
 Borax

 Formaldehyde (formaline)

 Unapproved colouring agents (methanil yellow,

rhodamins B)
Melamin
 Melamine (also known as tripolycyanamide) has a number of
industrial uses including the production of glues and plastics.
 There is no approval for direct usage of melamine in food
 melamine was illegally added to milk in China to boost its
apparent protein content as measured by the standard
Kjeldahl and Dumas tests
 More than 52,857 children had been treated for renal
complications and at least 4 had died
The Maillard Reaction in Foods

 Produces aromas in heated

foods
 Responsible for colour
formation
(non-enzymatic browning)
 Maillard products have
antioxidant properties

• Can cause loss of nutrients

• Some products may be toxic
Flavour and Colour in the
Maillard Reaction
OH OH O OH OH NHR
H 2O
H + R NH2 H
rearrangement
OH OH OH OH OH O
reducing sugar amino Amadori intermediate
compound
 H2 O
 RNH2

O O O
FLAVOUR
COMPOUNDS H
O O OH O
MELANOIDIN O OH
PIGMENTS
Amino acid
amino acids HO
O CHO
or O
proteins O OH

O CHO
O

carbonyl compounds
 General scheme of MR browning
Melanoidins Amides
Amine Ammonia Brown colour Acrylamide
Phospholipids
Amino acids
Proteins
Amino Carbonyl
HEAT Interaction
(Amadori product)
Aldehydes
Carbonyl Ketones
Reducing sugars Furans, Pyrroles,
Polysaccharides Thiopenes, Thiazoles,
Oxidised lipids Oxazoles, Imidazoles,
Pyridines, Pyrazines
Possible toxicants
 Acrylamide
 Furan
 Heterocyclic amines
 3-MPCD (Mono Chloro Propan Diol)
 3-Methyl Imidazolone

Development of mitigation strategies to

reduce their concentration
3-MCPD (Monochloropropanediol)
 Monochloropropanediol was identified first in acid-
Hydrolized Vegetable Products).
 Also found in pastries, salami, cheese.
3-MCPD
 3-MCPD esters are formed at high temperatures
during the refining of edible fats and oils, mainly
during the deodorisation step.
 The main factors for the formation of 3-MCPD
esters are the presence of chloride ions, glycerol,
tri-, di- or monoacylglycerides, as well as
temperature and time.
3-MCPD
 3-MCPD esters have been found in all refined vegetable
oils.
 now also widespread in thermally processed foods like
French fries, toasted bread, bread crust,donuts, salty
crackers, roasted coffee, roasted chicory (coffee
surrogate), roasted barley, roasted dark malt and coffee
creamer, and in fermented foods like pickled herring and
sausage.
Residues of Pesticides
 There may be residues of the pesticides metabolites which may
equally toxic
 Its stability leads to persistence in the environment
 Fat soluble, results in their deposition and accumulation in fatty
tissues
 Accumulated in meat and milk from bovine, sheep, poultry, fish
 Processing methods such as washing, blanching, heating and
canning may remove large proportions of pesticides residues
 Sometimes processing may cause a chemical to degrade,
producing a compound that is more toxic than the original one
Dioxin
 Two groups of chlorinated organic compounds
 Polychlorinated dibenzo-ρ-dioxins (PCDD)
 Polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF)
 Include polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and
tetrachlorodibenzo-ρ-dioxins (TCDD)
 Lipophilic, low volatility, extremely stabil
 Very toxic, may exhibit acute toxicity, carcinogenicity,
teratogenicity
Case History: Dioxin
Dioxin is common
byproduct of insecticide
production.

One of the most potent

tumor forming chemicals
ever tested in Guinea
pigs! Operates though
strong interaction with
estrogen receptors in
guinea pigs.
Despite dramatic publicity to the contrary, scientific
studies failed to find link exposure to human cancer
although it is a toxin. Human estrogen receptors are
different from those in guinea pigs!
Migration from Packaging Material
 Types of packaging materials
 1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
 2 high density polyethylene (HDPE)
 3 polyvinyl chloride (vinyl)
 4 low density polyethylene (LDPE)
 5 polypropylene (PP)
 6 polystyrene (PS)
 7 other
 No 3 is not safe for food
 No 2 and 5 are safe in heating food
BPA
 BPA could be polymerized to
produce commercially
polycarbonate plastics—
 plastic used to make some of baby
bottle
 Polycarbonate plastic bottles often
have the number 7 in the recycling
triangle on the bottom of the
bottle, falling into the “other”
category
BPA
 The chemical bond between bisphenol A molecules is
unstable, and with time and use, the chemical leaches
from bottles
 Heating bottles or pouring hot liquids into
bottles, the presence of acidic or basic foods and
beverages, and repeated washing have all been
shown to increase the rate of BPA leaching from
bottles
BPA Effects
 Experiments with animals link exposure at very low doses
to a range of serious health problems including:
 • prostate and breast cancer
 • early onset of puberty
 • obesity
 • hyperactivity
 • lowered sperm count
 • miscarriage
 • diabetes
 • altered immune system17
 A potential reproductive and developmental toxin,
Trace Metals
 Industrial contamination of the environment
 Mercury (Hg)
 Ends up in rivers and lakes where it is converted in to methyl
mercury
 Contamination of fish
 Minamata Japan
 Lead (Pb)
 Environmental contaminations and from solder of tin cans (acid
foods)
 ADI: 0.1-0.8 mg lead/day
 Tin: from tin can
 Cadmium: Crustacea, oyster (from sea pollutants)
Mycotoxins
 Fungal toxins: nut, corn, cereals
 Five mycotoxins got most concern in Indonesia
 Aflatoxin: most potent and most powerful toxic
 Fumonisin
 Ochratoxin
 Deoxinivalenol
 Patulin: apple fruit
 Chronic effects, Carcinogenic
 Result from improper drying and storage
Bacterial Toxins
 From bacterial contamination of food
 Toxin produced in food and ingested if food were consumed
 Staphylococcal enterotoxin
 Bacillus cereus emetic toxin
 Botulin toxin (neurotoxin)
 Anthrax toxin (cytotoxin)
Bacterial Toxins
 Pseudomonas cocovenenans
Shellfish Toxins
 From marine algae, dinoflagellata and phytoplankton
 Red tide
 Paralytic, neurotoxic, diarrhoeic, amnesic
 Other marine toxin: Fugu, ciguatera
Allergenic and Intolerance
 Allergic induced food:
 Milk, fish, crustacea, oyster, nut, wheat, soybean and their
derivative products
 Intolerance involved milk, wheat
 Chemical hazards in food

Disease
Toxicity

and
Death

Exposure