Peanuts contamination

Mills ENC, Potts A, Plumb GW, Lambert N, Morgan MRA (1997). Development of arapid dipstick immunoassay for the detection of peanut contamination of food. FoodAgric. Immunol, 9 37-50. 

Wen H-W, Borejsza-Wysocki W, DeCory TR, Durst RA (2007). Peanut allergy, peanut allergens, and methods for detection of peanut contamination in food products. Compr. Rev. EoodScl Technol, 6 47-58. 

In early November 2008, the Centers for Disease Control detected two clusters of food poisoning victims in 14 states that shared a common strain of pathogenic Salmonella bacteria that was ultimately traced back to PCAs Blakely plant. After FDA discovered evidence of unsanitary conditions at the plant, PCA ceased production and conducted a voluntary recall of all peanut products produced at the plant over a two-year period. The agency then discovered that the company also operated a facility in Plainview, Texas, that lacked a Texas license and had not been inspected since it opened in March 2005. When inspectors discovered peanuts contaminated with the same strain of Salmonella, that plant also ceased production. Before the outbreak was over, contaminated peanuts had sickened at least 700 people (estimates ran as high as 19,000) and killed nine. "... 

Mycotoxias fiad thek way kito the human diet by way of mold-contaminated cereal and legume crops, meat, and milk products. Com and peanuts probably represent the most common sources of mycotoxias ki the human diet. Many mycotoxias are acutely toxic as well as being poteat carckiogeas (86). 

Pea.nuts, The proteins of peanuts are low in lysine, threonine, cystine plus methionine, and tryptophan when compared to the amino acid requirements for children but meet the requirements for adults (see Table 3). Peanut flour can be used to increase the nutritive value of cereals such as cornmeal but further improvement is noted by the addition of lysine (71). The trypsin inhibitor content of raw peanuts is about one-fifth that of raw soybeans, but this concentration is sufficient to cause hypertrophy (enlargement) of the pancreas in rats. The inhibitors of peanuts are largely inactivated by moist heat treatment (48). As for cottonseed, peanuts are prone to contamination by aflatoxin. FDA regulations limit aflatoxin levels of peanuts and meals to 100 ppb for breeding beef catde, breeding swine, or poultry 200 ppb for finishing swine 300 ppb for finishing beef catde 20 ppb for immature animals and dairy animals and 20 ppb for humans. 

By the nature of the process by which olive oil is extracted from the olive, the oil is susceptible to contamination. The high price associated with olive oil of the highest purity— extra virgin olive oil — also leads to falsification by unscrupulous vendors who blend with less costly oils such as com, peanut, and soybean oil. Various analytical techniques have been devised to authenticate the purity of olive oil by detecting certain oil components. 

The removal of metal ions from waste aqueous solutions is of importance to many countries of the world both environmentally and for water re-use. The application of low-cost sorbents including carbonacceous materials, agricultural products and waste by-products has been investigated [1], Several researchers employing wide variety techniques have attempted removal of metal ions from contaminated water bodies. Majorities of these are adsorption on various surfaces. In recent years, agricultured by products have been widely studied for metal removal from water. These include peat [2], pine bark [3], banana peat [4], peanut shells [5], sawdust [6] and leaves [7]. 

Dorner, J.W., Cole, R.J. and Blankenship B.D., Effect of inoculum rate of biological control agents on preharvest adflatoxin contamination of peanuts, Biol. Contr., 12, 171, 1998. 

It also became clear that the mold itself - identified by the mold experts (mycologists) as the fairly common species Aspergillus flavus -was not directly responsible for the poisoning. Turkey X disease could be reproduced in the laboratory not only when birds were fed peanut meal contaminated with living mold, but also when fed the same meal after the mold had been killed. 

Little information on the levels of 1,4-dichlorobenzene concentrations in infant and toddler foods and in baby formula was located. Page and Lacroix (1995) analyzed a variety of beverage and food samples for 32 different volatile contaminants, including 1,4-dichlorobenzene and found residue levels to be quite low (range, 0.1-22 ppb). Soft drink samples contained 0.1 g/kg (ppb), while cream with 10% butterfat, butter, margarine, peanut butter, flour, and pastry mix contained concentrations of 0.1 ppb, 1.3-2.7 ppb, 12.2-14.5 ppb, 1.2-8.8 ppb, 7.3 ppb, and 22 ppb, respectively. No information was located to determine whether children differed in their weight-adjusted intake of 1,4-dichlorobenzene. 

Aflatoxins Contaminant (mycotoxin) Produced by Aspergillus flavus, especially grains, corn, and peanuts carcinogenic and hepatotoxic... 

Cultural practices such as irrigation are effective in reducing aflatoxin contamination of peanut and com (54), but this practice is not always available or cost effective to growers. Other conventional disease control practices, such as the use of fungicides, are largely ineffective in controlling A. flavus infection of crops when utilized at concentrations that are cost effective as well as environmentally safe. 

The importance of direct gas chromatography and combined direct GC/MS to the food industry is demonstrated by the analysis of volatile flavor components and contaminants in experimental samples of rice, food blends, and raw and roasted peanuts. By examining these samples, we are able to investigate flavor systems that are probably associated with lipid oxidation, thermal degradation of protein, or protein interactions with other compounds. 

As mentioned above, this unique method can be used to detect and identify volatile contaminants in food materials. As shown in chromatogram A in Figure 5, raw peanuts that had been in a cardboard box in the laboratory yielded relatively large... 

Figure 5. Profiles of volatiles for low-quality peanuts with contaminants, raw and roasted (I) ethanol (2) pentane (3) 2-propanol (4) acetone (5) methylene chloride (6) methyl acetate (7) 2-methylpropanal (8) chloroform (9) diacetyl (10) benzene (11) 3-methylbutanal (12) 2-methylbutanal (13) 2,3-pentanedione (14) fl-methyl-pyrrole (15) pyridine (16) toluene (17) hexanal (18) 2-methylpyrazine (19) 2-methylpyrrole (20) 2-heptanone (21) styrene (22) 2,5-dimethylpyrazine (23) 2-ethyl-5-methylpyrazine (24) 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (25) phenylacetalde-hyde.

Aflatoxins, e.g., 40, comprise a family of related products that are elaborated by the fungus Aspergillus flavus and end by contaminating the food, such as peanuts, upon which the fungus grows. Several aflatoxins, notably B, and Gj, become covalently hydrated in the mammalian liver to give the true toxin 41, which is a hemiacetal. This change... 

TB Whitaker, F Giesbrecht, J Wu. Suitability of several statistical models to simulate observed distribution of sample test results in inspections of aflatoxin-contaminated peanut lots. J AOAC Int... 

Even with the added ingredients to many of these products, the FDA data do suggest that wheat-based products consistently have more chemical contaminants than corn, rice, and oat-based products. As a whole, corn-based products are the least contaminated. Furthermore, products containing oils (e,g., nut products) or cooked in oils (e.g., popcorn and chips) tend to be more contaminated. These data show that the nut products are the most contaminated foods (particularly peanut butter). Once again, this is probably due to the high content of peanut oil. 

These data show that peanut products (peanut butter and dry-roasted peanuts) are contaminated with at least three banned pesticides, while mixed nuts, butter crackers, popcorn, sweet roll, pancake mix, and cornbread were reported to contain banned pesticides. Given the low percentage of imports for these products, the occurrence of these pesticides can be said to be the result of past U.S. agricultural practices. Once again, this suggests that even USDA certified organic peanut products will contain a mixture of banned pesticides. The occurrence of banned pesticides in the other grain-based products may be associated with the occurrence of butter or oils in these mixed products. 

---