Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Emerging mycotoxins in foods: chemical risk assessment
Coordinator
Standard protocols (ISO), whole genome sequencing (WGS), computational methodologies, and MetaOmic approaches (metagenomics, metatrascriptomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, culturomics and phenomics) will be applied for the identification and characterization of the new and (re)-emerging chemical and biological hazards in traditional products, related to climate changes, microbial evolution, and modifications in the manufacturing processes. Omics techniques will also be applied to study factors affecting the survival and the stress resistance mechanisms of pathogens and antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria during food processing and shelf life. In addition, a CAD-based automatic feature recognition procedure will be developed for hygienic design of food machinery, as a prerequisite for GMP in food production.
The task includes evaluation of safety parameters in traditional and novel foods through the development of: a) chemical sensors and immunosensors for the selective detection of algal and plant toxins, and trace allergens; b) portable devices based on laser photoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) and other spectroscopy techniques; c) Ambient Desorption Ionisation methods with High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (DESI-HRMS); e) use of rt-PCR and digital droplet-PCR to evaluate new and (re)-emerging foodborne pathogenic species; f) metabolomics and proteomics strategies coupled to pathway analysis to evaluate the effects of emerging and re-emerging contaminants; d) analytical techniques, i.e., spectroscopic and MS-based, to determine biogenic amines, pesticides, veterinary drug residues, mycotoxins and processing toxicants; and g) new Matrix-Reference Materials to be characterised for food safety parameters will be developed, including preparation of test-lots, their characterization and homogeneity and stability studies.
Report on consolidated RA workflows for the identification, prioritisation, and characterization of (re)emerging risks
Report on the development and testing of new analytical techniques for targeted analysis of contaminants (M36)
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of filamentous fungi. The occurrence of mycotoxins in food may cause adverse health effects in humans.
The co-occurrence of regulated mycotoxins in foods and feeds, together with modified and emerging mycotoxins, has been increasingly reported worldwide in recent years. Therefore, sensitive, accurate, and validated methods for the simultaneous determination of these hazardous contaminants in different matrices are highly demanded to fulfil regulatory requirements and to carry out reliable surveillance programs
Multiple mycotoxins may coexist in the food matrix; in addition to known mycotoxins, for which maximum levels in food are enforced, also currently unregulated, so-called "emerging mycotoxins" were shown to occur frequently in food (i.e. enniatins (ENNs), beauvericin (BEA), sterigmatocystin (STC), moniliformin (MON), Alternaria spp toxins (ALT)). Gaps in knowledge have been identified for several compounds, and sound analytical methods are key to ensuring food safety. Of those, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based methods are becoming more and more popular, as they allow the sensitive simultaneous determination of multiple fungal metabolites in many matrices. These methods also sometimes reveal “surprising” findings, such as known mycotoxins in untypical matrices or in unusual geographical regions, for which global warming might partly be responsible. LC-MS is of tremendous help in the discovery of new mycotoxins and or other modified forms of mycotoxins. Moreover, “emerging mycotoxins”, can occur in high frequency and sometimes also in high concentrations in cereals and in other food- and feedstuffs.
Emerging mycotoxins were defined as “mycotoxins, which are neither routinely determined, nor legislatively regulated; however, the evidence of their incidence is rapidly increasing”. According to this definition, many more fungal metabolites with known (or at least suspected) toxicity would fall in the category of emerging mycotoxins.
Rapid and effective detection methods are crucial to assure food safety and to conduct a proper risk assessment of the role these undetected toxins may play on human health.
The presence and co-occurrence of different and emerging mycotoxins in food will be assess using analytical approaches oriented to multiresidual detection starting from innovative tecniques of clean-up that allow to distinguish diverse molecules belonging to unrelated chemical classes.
The main task would be to have such an extraction and detection method that has selective affinity and reliability results for many mycotoxins.
The study will involve different activities as reported below.
Method development and validation for the analysis of emerging mycotoxins:
Contribute to the knowledge of the spread of emerging mycotoxins in foods.
Develop correct sampling plan for emerging mycotoxins analysis.
Validate analytical methods for detecting multiple mycotoxins/modified mycotoxins in food and food products.
Provide guidance on risk analysis in food supply chains.
Provide to draw up a precise risk assessment of production chains related to implemented technological processes.
