Food safety plant toxins

D Mello J P F (2003), Mycotoxins in cereal grains, nuts and other plant products , Food Safety Contaminants and Toxins, CAB International, Wallingford, 65-90. 

After all the answers from the interviews had been uploaded, an expert analysed each supply chain for each of the seven defined criteria for quality and safety microbial toxins and abiotic contaminants potential pathogens natural plant toxicants freshness and taste nutrient content and food additives fraud social and ethical aspects. For example, an expert on freshness and taste would check each major step in a supply chain for tomatoes to determine if it fulfilled the definition of a CCP (HACCP, Principle 2) in relation to freshness and taste for this commodity. If the step was considered to be a CCP, the answers in the questionnaire that related to relevant substeps at this step would be reviewed, to assess the control procedures that were in use for this CCP. The expert would then fill in the text field, structuring the input to consist of the following points ... 

Immunoaffinity columns are extremely versatile and have been used for the isolation and concentration of a diverse number of analytes from a wide array of matrices (2). Analytes may include macromolecules such as proteins and receptors or small molecules such as environmental toxins, antibiotics, or pesticides. Matrices may include animal tissues or excreta, plant extracts, cell culture medium, or virtually any milieu encountered in biological work. Because of its value as a research tool, immunoaffinity chromatography has found extensive use by the pharmaceutical industry to purify therapeutic proteins, the food safety community to purify small amounts of toxins from food and as a general tool for analytical chemists to purify analytes for subsequent instrumental analysis. 

The study of proteins is especially interesting in food safety because they may act as toxins, antinutrients, or allergens (53). Proteomics, a high-throughput technology able to quantify hundreds of proteins simultaneously, has become very important in comparative studies of GM plants and their nonmodified counterparts (54). Two conceptually different strategies can be followed in comparative proteomics the shotgun and the bottom-up approaches. 

Quite naturally, too, people are worried about food safety. Is it safe to eat transgenes Is it safe to eat the products of the transgene such as Bt toxin Alan Chadwick would also ask, Does it taste good One of the reasons the first commercially available GE plant, the Flavr-Savr tomato was a failure, was that, despite the fact that it had extended shelf-life, it had no more flavor to savor than any other prematurely picked, industrial tomato. Even if GE plants are safe to eat (See chapter 7), are they worth eating ... 

This review focuses on the nonproteinaceous toxins elaborated by fungi (mycotoxins) and plants for two reasons Historically, mycotoxins and plant toxins have been important in food safety considerations, and, in general, proteinaceous toxins are not usually analyzed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) procedures. With the exception of the paralytic shellfish poisons, TLC methods have been used seldom in the determination of seafood toxins. The TLC method for saxitoxin developed by Buckley et al. (1) has been used extensively in the analyses of the saxitoxins (2). Reference 3 is an excellent review of seafood toxins. 

Over the last few decades, safety has become one of the most important topics related to food. From this view, quality control of vegetable raw materials has at first to cover the following issues natural and anthropogenic contaminants (e.g. heavy metals, pollution from industrial and private combustions, not professionally deposited waste products, radionuclides), residues of fertilisers (e.g. nitrate), plant-conditioning and plant-protective agents, filth, pests, the microbial status and the occurrence of microbial toxins. It is not possible to discuss all these aspects in detail however, with a focus on herbs and spices, two of them should be stressed more thoroughly. For further information, see [8]. 

As one can see from the aforementioned safety strategies, considerable effort is put into the reduction of any potential risk from the transgenic plant for the environment. In general, the scientific risk can be kept at a minimum, if common sense is applied - in accordance with Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) that Science is simply common sense at its best. For example, protein toxins (for vaccine production) should never be grown in food plants. 

Each selected commodity will be analysed, using the procedures developed for Hazard Analysis by Critical Control Points (HACCP), for each of the following seven aspects of safety and/or quality microbial toxins and abiotic contaminants correspondence with traditional values about proper food nutrient content and food additives harmful micro-organisms freshness and taste natural plant toxicants and adulterations. 

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