This article gives an overview on current European Union (EU) legislation on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and analytical methods for official control of food and environmental samples. It ...aims to highlight the discrepancy in the approaches for legislation and analysis and the need for harmonization between these fields as both are linked. It describes the actions taken within the EU in setting up an on-line monitoring database for food products, proficiency tests and method-validation studies.
The European Union (EU) has established demanding regulatory limits for controlling aflatoxins B
1, B
2, G
1 and G
2, in cereals, nuts, nut products and dried fruit, aflatoxin M
1 in milk, and ...ochratoxin A in cereals. These limits are likely to be extended in the future to additional commodities and other mycotoxins.
For enforcement purposes and in particular for resolving any disputes between parties, it is essential that validated methods are available, with performance characteristics that meet certain minimum criteria. As such methods were not available and had not previously been validated either for matrices of interest in Europe or at the low European limits compared to the USA, the EU funded a method-validation project to fulfil this requirement. Immunoaffinity column clean-up methods with HPLC determination were established for aflatoxins B
1, B
2, G
1 and G
2 in peanut butter, pistachios, fig paste and paprika, aflatoxin B
1 in baby food, aflatoxin M
1 in liquid milk, and ochratoxin A in roasted coffee and baby food. For patulin in apple juice and apple puree, solvent extraction and solid-phase clean-up HPLC methods were developed. To undertake collaborative studies, particular care was taken in preparation of naturally-contaminated test materials containing the toxins at levels close to regulatory limits and in demonstrating the homogeneity of batches of material. To ensure that participants in the validation exercise could follow the procedures to be tested, videos of the methods were prepared showing, in particular, any critical steps. Prior to undertaking the method validation, participants were invited to collaborative study workshops to ensure that they fully understood the methods and their role in the study. This care in planning and executing the collaborative studies led to impressive performance characteristics and adoption of six procedures by AOAC International as First Action Methods and seven methods by CEN as European standards. The valuable lessons learned in undertaking these validation exercises are now being put to further use in studies aimed at validating methods for mycotoxins in foodstuffs, which are appropriate for developing countries based on TLC as the end determination but use more modern sample clean-up techniques.
This paper describes the requirements and resulting challenges for the implementation of current and upcoming European Union legislation referring to the use of nanomaterials in food, cosmetics and ...other consumer products. The European Commission has recently adopted a recommendation for the definition of nanomaterials. There is now an urgent need for appropriate and fit-for-purpose analytical methods in order to identify nanomaterials properly according to this definition and to assess whether or not a product contains nanomaterials. Considering the lack of such methods to date, this paper elaborates on the challenges of the legislative framework and the type of methods needed, not only to facilitate implementation of labelling requirements, but also to ensure the safety of products coming to the market. Considering the many challenges in the analytical process itself, such as interaction of nanoparticles with matrix constituents, potential agglomeration and aggregation due to matrix environment, broad variety of matrices, etc., there is a need for integrated analytical approaches, not only for sample preparation (e.g. separation from matrix), but also for the actual characterisation. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for quality assurance tools such as validated methods and (certified) reference materials, including materials containing nanoparticles in a realistic matrix (food products, cosmetics, etc.).
This work reviews the literature on the compositional data of vegetable fats used or proposed as alternatives to cocoa butter in chocolate and confectionery products. Cocoa butter is the only ...continuous phase in chocolate, thus responsible for the dispersion of all other constituents and for the physical behaviour of chocolate. Unique to cocoa butter is its brittleness at room temperature and its quick and complete melting at body temperature. There were, and are, strong efforts to replace cocoa butter in part for chocolate production for technological and economic reasons. Such cocoa butter alternatives are the so-called cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs), cocoa butter substitutes (CBSs) and cocoa butter replacers (CBRs). These are mostly mixtures of various vegetable fats (often modified) and can consist of palm and palm kernel oil, illipé fat, shea butter, sal fat and kokum butter. In addition, a large variety of other vegetable oils can be used. Their composition according to triglycerides, fatty acids, sterols and other unsaponifiable components is discussed in this report.
Methods for allergen analysis in food: a review Poms, R.E; Klein, C.L; Anklam, E
Food additives and contaminants,
2004, 1/1/2004, 2004-Jan, 2004-01-00, 20040101, Letnik:
21, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Food allergies represent an important health problem in industrialized countries. Undeclared allergens as contaminants in food products pose a major risk for sensitized persons. A proposal to amend ...the European Food Labelling Directive requires that all ingredients intentionally added to food products will have to be included on the label. Reliable detection and quantification methods for food allergens are necessary to ensure compliance with food labelling and to improve consumer protection. Methods available so far are based on protein or DNA detection. This review presents an up-to-date picture of the characteristics of the major food allergens and collects published methods for the determination of food allergens or the presence of potentially allergenic constituents in food products. A summary of the current availability of commercial allergen detection kits is given. One part of the paper describes various methods that have been generally employed in the detection of allergens in food; their advantages and drawbacks are discussed in brief. The main part of this review, however, focuses on specific food allergens and appropriate methods for their detection in food products. Special emphasis is given to allergenic foods explicitly mentioned in the Amendment to the European Food Labelling Directive that pose a potential risk for allergic individuals, namely celery, cereals containing gluten (including wheat, rye and barley) crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk and dairy products, mustard, tree-nuts, sesame seeds, and sulphite at concentrations of at least 10 mg kg
−1
. Sulphites, however, are not discussed.
The volatile profiles of 43 authentic honey samples of different botanical and geographical origins were obtained by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. A qualitative analysis of the ...volatile compounds identified was performed in order to assess the marker compounds (if/when existing) for both botanical and geographical origin. The results seem to indicate the existence of certain marker compounds for the floral origins assessed (e.g. acacia, chestnut, eucalyptus, heather, lavender, lime, rape, rosemary and sunflower). Also such compounds for two geographical origins (e.g. Denmark and England) seem to exist and possible marker compounds could also be found for the honeys from The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
In early 2002, the Swedish National Food Administration reported high acrylamide levels in heat-treated carbohydrate-rich foods. Consequently, intensive activity began examining the many different ...types of food, and thousands of analyses have been undertaken world wide. Measurement data have been published in many different types of media. Within this flood of publications, there are only a limited number of articles concerned with the technical aspects of the measurements. This review focuses on the state-of-the-art in the analysis of acrylamide in foodstuffs. It covers information on methods from peer-reviewed articles and other sources (e.g. a survey carried out among official and private laboratories of the Member States of the European Union). Alternative methods are presented and discussed alongside the more common measurement techniques for acrylamide in foodstuffs. Special attention is given to sample preparation. The greatest differences between the analytical methods was for acrylamide extraction and clean-up. The influence of different extraction techniques or extraction solvents/solvent mixtures on the measurement results has not yet been fully investigated. There is also a lack of understanding about the sample clean-up. Since both might have a large impact on the results of the analysis, this review should also be considered as a basis for further investigations.
An experimental design procedure was used to investigate the effects of some operating parameters on the supercritical fluid extraction of carotenoids β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin from ...Spirulina Pacifica algae, a carotenoid-rich dietary product. Variables tested were temperature and pressure of the supercritical fluid, dynamic extraction time and percentage of ethanol added as the modifier. Each variable was tested at three levels; 31 experiments were performed in random order. Analyses of the extracts were performed by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV–Vis photodiode array detection. Analytical responses (chromatographic peak areas) were processed by using a stepwise multiple regression analysis, in order to find polynomial functions describing the relationships between variables and responses. For all the analytes the experimental conditions providing the highest extraction yield inside the experimental domain considered were found. Supercritical fluid extraction results obtained in these conditions were compared with those obtained by performing solvent extraction in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the supercritical fluid extraction procedure.
This review is concerned with analytical methods to prove the authenticity of honey. A special emphasis is put on suitable methods for the detection of the geographical and botanical origin of honey. ...Whereas the determination of some single parameters, such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), moisture, enzyme activity, nitrogen, mono- and disaccharides, and residues from medicinal treatment or pesticides in honey does not lead to any information about the botanical and geographical origin, there are some suitable methods based on the analysis of specific components or on multi-component analysis. Mostly, such methods give indications of the botanical origin, investigating flavonoids patterns, distribution of pollen, aroma compounds and special marker compounds. There are some other profiles of components which could probably be used for the detection of the geographical origin (e.g. oligosaccharides, amino acids, trace elements). In particular, the combination of methods could be a promising approach to prove authenticity, especially when modern statistical data evaluation techniques will be applied.
The results of an inter-laboratory study with five commercially available peanut ELISA test kits to detect and quantify peanut residues in two food matrices (biscuit and dark chocolate) at four ...different concentrations (0-10 mg peanut kg
−1
matrix corresponding to about 0-2.5 mg peanut protein kg
−1
matrix) are reported. In general the five ELISA test kits evaluated could detect peanut protein in the two food matrices. In three cases, the study challenged the test kits beyond their intended use for quantification below the manufacturers' defined cut-off limits. Generally, all five ELISA test kits performed well in the concentration range 5-10 mg kg
−1
rather than in the low concentration range (2.0 or 2.5 mg kg
−1
). The variation in the found recoveries of peanut between the different test kits had a spread of 44-191% across all concentrations. The quantification characteristics between test kits differed significantly at the very low mg kg
−1
level. Two test kits performed well even at concentrations below 5 mg kg
−1
with reproducibilities of 27-36% for biscuits and 45-57% for chocolate.
