Suchergebnisse

Access to sufficient safe food is a basic requirement for human health. Ensuring food safety and security in a highly globalized world presents increasingly difficult, and often under-appreciated challenges, for governments, commercial organizations and individuals alike. Food security is undoubtedly amongst the most pressing of challenges confronting the world in the twenty-first century. The FAO definition (1996) highlights the importance of ensuring that all people have access to safe, nutritious, preferred food, rather than simply ensuring that sufficient food is produced. A large part of food security is assuring the food is safe from a chemical, physical or biological aspect. According to UN, access to a safe and secure food supply is a basic human right. Everyone needs food and needs it every day either plant sources or animal sources or both. Food safety must be an integral part in the nutrition and food security policies and programs. Food safety and food security are interrelated concepts which have an impact on the health outcomes and quality of human lives. A key challenge to scale up nutrition, public health and food security/food safety globally is to better leverage existing capacity and research working towards evidence-based decisions. Food safety deals with safeguarding the own national food supply chain from the introduction, growth or survival of hazardous microbial and chemical agents. Food safety and food security (food availability) are essential goals that need to be met to protect and improve human health and nutrition. ; BG; bg; EFSAfocalpoint@mzh.government.bg

Climate changes may have an impact on the occurrence of food safety hazards at various stages of the food chain, from primary production through to consumption. Climate related factors include: changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, ocean warming and acidification. Favourable temperature and water activity are crucial for mycotoxigenic fungi and mycotoxin production. А major risk in developed countries will be in temperate climates. This is based on temperatures increasing to >30°C, which would be conducive to aflatoxin production and represent a significant risk. Currently cold regions may become liable to temperate problems concerning ochratoxin A, patulin and Fusarium toxins (e.g. deoxynivalenol). Climate change may also affect socio-economic aspects related to food systems such as agriculture, animal production, global trade, demographics and human behaviour which all influence food safety. This paper reviews the potential impacts of predicted changes in climate on food contamination with mycotoxins at various stages of the food chain and identifies adaptation strategies and research priorities to address food safety implications of climate change. The paper concludes that there is a need for intersectoral and international cooperation to better understand the changing food safety situation and in developing and implementing adaptation strategies to address emerging risks associated with climate change. ; BG; bg; EFSAfocalpoint@mzh.government.bg

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an organic compound used primarily as a monomer in production of polycarbonate plastics, epoxy resins and as a non-polymer additive to other plastics. Because of the extensive use of BPA in the manufacture of consumer products, such as polycarbonate baby bottles, epoxy-resin can liners, food containers and utensils, dental sealants, protective coatings, flame-retardants, and water supply pipes, there is a widespread human exposure to BPA. BPA has been shown to have weak binding affinity to oestrogen receptors. Concerning the results from human health effect assessments, while there is general consensus concerning data on acute and local effects and genotoxicity of BPA, there is not yet agreement as regards reproductive and developmental toxicity (specifically neurodevelopment) and carcinogenicity. There is also some debate on the toxicokinetics of BPA which is still not fully resolved. Some recent studies reported the detection of free BPA in blood and urine in animals and humans, leading to speculation on whether BPA might accumulate in the body and/or whether other, non-food sources may contribute to human exposure. There are also indications that transfer of BPA may take place from the mother to the foetus, which in turn may imply an exposure in pre-natal life following the mother's intake of BPA. However, the reliability of these findings should be confirmed by both sound analytical data on the amount of free BPA in human plasma and urine, and a better understanding of toxicokinetics in animals and humans. ; BG; bg; EFSAfocalpoint@mzh.government.bg

Citrinin is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by several filamentous fungi of the genera Penicillium, Aspergillus and Monascus, which has been encountered as a natural contaminant in grains (wheat, corn, rice and barley), other plant products such as beans, fruits, fruit and vegetable juices, herbs and spices, in spoiled dairy products, feedstuffs, as well as biological fluids. This mycotoxin is known to occur also as an undesirable contaminant in Monascus fermentation products (generally described as red yeast rice (RYR)), which have been used in Asia for centuries for meat preservation and food colouring. Instrumental techniques for citrinin analysis include fluorimetric, chromatographic and immunochemical techniques. To date, high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) is the method of choice for routine analysis. Сitrinin is acutely nephrotoxic at relatively high doses in mice and rats, rabbits, pigs and poultry, causing swelling and eventual necrosis of the kidneys and affecting the liver function at a lesser extent. It may be implicated in human disease, such as "yellow rice" disease in Japan and Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN) when present with other mycotoxins, in particular OTA. Balkan endemic nephropathy is a noninflammatory bilateral kidney disease that affects rural populations in a few regions of former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania. ; BG; bg; EFSAfocalpoint@mzh.government.bg