The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has reassessed eight toxins produced by Alternaria moulds and found that five of them are genotoxic, meaning they can damage DNA, FoodNavigator reports.
Alternaria toxins come from fungi that can contaminate food and feed. They are most often found in cereal and grain-based foods, fruit products and juices, tomatoes, vegetables, sunflower oil and olive oil. Infants and toddlers are likely to have the highest exposure relative to their body weight.
The moulds need more than 20% water content to colonise plant tissue, EFSA says, which makes fruit and vegetables particularly susceptible, and grain harvested in wet weather or stored in damp conditions is also at higher risk.
The five toxins found to be genotoxic are alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), altertoxin I (ATX-I), altertoxin II (ATX-II) and stemphyltoxin III (STTX-III). Dietary exposure to two others, altenuene (ALT) and tentoxin (TEN), was well below levels at which adverse effects might occur.
For tenuazonic acid (TeA), the toxin most commonly found in food, notably in paprika powder, tomatoes and mulberries, the data were insufficient to decide; EFSA concluded with 98% certainty that it has a low probability of being genotoxic.
EFSA called for more research to close data gaps, including on the toxins' presence in plant-based meat, human milk and infant formula, and said the sensitivity of the analytical methods used to detect them needs to improve.
Photo: Ninjatacoshell / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: FoodNavigator
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