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.
Identification of natural toxins and related emerging risks in innovat...
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.
Safety assessment of traditional and novel foods through targeted and untargeted methodologies (M36)
Report on the development and testing of new analytical techniques for targeted analysis of contaminants (M36)
Following global drivers like climate change and geopolitical events, as well as the strong demand for healthier and safer food and a large competitive market, the food industry is facing intense changes due to the introduction of less exploited raw materials, innovative ingredients, and new sustainable processing. In this context, horizon scanning for emerging risks and designing proper surveillance and monitoring strategies are of upmost importance.
Taking into consideration the effect of climate change, natural toxins (i.e. fungal and plant toxins) are among the most relevant emerging risks for the bakery and meal solutions sector. Barilla Company and UNIPR have teamed up since a decade to identify and mitigate the occurrence of emerging mycotoxins in cereals and are now interested in expanding their activity to encompass toxic alkaloids (e.g. pyrrolizidine alkaloids, tropane alkaloids, ergot alkaloids, among others) and new ingredients/commodities (e.g. wheat gluten/gluten-free products, legumes, seeds, spice and herbs...).
The activity will give insights into the emerging risks related to natural toxins in a large range of ingredients. It will lead to the collection of occurrence data, as a base for risk assessment, and it will return a deep understanding of the formation, accumulation, and modification of selected food toxicants along the production chain of interest.
Advanced analytical solution for target screening will be developed and tested under an industrial environment. The safety assessment of innovative/alternative ingredients will be used to drive product formulation under a “safer for design” approach.
