Natural Toxicants In Food

Natural Toxicants in Food covers areas of current interest related to naturally occurring toxicants found in food that are generated by a variety of sources, including, plants, bacteria, algae, fungi, and animals.

While systems such as GMP and HACCP assure a high standard of food quality, foodborne poisonings still pose a serious hazard to the consumer's health. The lack of knowledge among some producers and consumers regarding the risks and benefits related to food makes it imperative to provide updated information in order to improve food safety. To

This volume describes some of the new research published since volume 1 of the series, Plant and fungal toxins , was published in 1983. A few chapters update topics previously treated, but most describe in depth the toxicologic and chemical aspects of other topics. Thus volumes 1 and 6 together prov

Food Toxicants Analysis covers different aspects from the field of analytical food toxicology including emerging analytical techniques and applications to detect food allergens, genetically modified organisms, and novel ingredients (including those of functional foods). Focus will be on natural toxins in food plants and animals, cancer modulating substances, microbial toxins in foods (algal, fungal, and bacterial) and all groups of contaminants (i.e., pesticides), persistent organic pollutants, metals, packaging materials, hormones and animal drug residues. The first section describes the current status of the regulatory framework, including the key principles of the EU food law, food safety, and the main mechanisms of enforcement. The second section addresses validation and quality assurance in food toxicants analysis and comprises a general discussion on the use of risk analysis in establishing priorities, the selection and quality control of available analytical techniques. The third section addresses new issues in food toxicant analysis including food allergens and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The fourth section covers the analysis of organic food toxicants. * step-by-step guide to the use of food analysis techniques * eighteen chapters covering emerging fields in food toxicants analysis * assesses the latest techniques in the field of inorganic analysis

The prevalence of naturally occurring toxins in plant and animal foods represents one of the most significant food safety issues, drawing the attention of both scientists and regulators alike. This unexplored area related to food quality is indeed a big concern for consumers, various regulatory authorities, and food industries. Apart from essential nutrients, several food crops are capable of producing a vast array of nonnutritious secondary metabolic products. These toxins produced as secondary metabolites have the potential to exhibit both beneficial and deleterious effects in both human beings and animals. Nevertheless, there has been huge progress in agricultural practices and food processing technologies, but still the number of nonnutritive substances and naturally derived toxins persist in our diet. Handbook of Plant and Animal Toxins in Food: Occurrence, Toxicity, and Prevention, focuses on various selected toxins in foods derived from plants as well as animals. The prominent plant toxins include solanine and chaconine, mushroom toxins, phytates, tannins, oxalates, goitrogens, gossypol, phytohemagglutinins, erucic acid, saponins, cyanogenic glycosides, enzyme inhibitors, BOAA (lathyrogens), toxic amino acids and toxic fatty acids. The prominent animal toxins covered in the book include various seafood toxins, shellfish toxins and biogenic amines. Key Features: Presents complete information about a plethora of toxins Provides quick and easy access to data on major plant and animal toxins Covers distribution of toxins in the plant and animal kingdom Provides comprehensive information on chemistry, safety and precautions of each toxin Commencing with a brief introduction of food toxins, this book is designed in such a way that the readers will be introduced to toxicity, safety and occurrence of each toxin selected. It also discusses the in-depth detailed information on food poisoning and its prevention. The book will also shed light on foodborne illness associated with toxins. The primary audience for this work will be food scientists, food toxicologists, university scholars and college students. Furthermore, the book will be of immense help for public health officials, pharmacologists, and food safety officers who are involved with enforcing regulations meant to ensure the safety of a particular food

Natural toxins are poisonous secondary metabolites produced by living organisms which are typically not harmful to the organisms themselves but can impact on human or animal health when consumed. Common sources of such toxins include poisonous plants, fungi, algae, and bacteria, and the diversity of these biological systems presents challenges to analytical chemists in identification in addition to wide-ranging food safety implications when present as contaminants in food commodities. The propensity for such toxins to be present in both animal feed and human food has led to the introduction of regulations for a small number of the most potent natural toxins, particularly mycotoxins. Implementation of these regulations necessitates the establishment of high-throughput analytical chemistry methods with increasingly lower limits of detection. The impacts of plant toxins are not limited to grazing livestock but can be carried through the food chain, with some toxins, such as indospicine, being demonstrated to accumulate in tissues of grazing animals, causing secondary poisoning in animals consuming meat from this livestock. This Special Issue focuses on the analysis of natural toxins and their incidence, from source organisms to food and feed commodities, in addition to their implications for food safety.

In the last decade an increased concern has been voiced against various environmental hazards, particularly chemicals that may cause harm to humans or animals. Numerous studies which have dealt with this subject invariably have focused on chemical contaminants of some component of a food chain. In contrast, much less attention has been paid to the potentially harmful substances that may occur in foodstuffs naturally. The purpose of this Handbook is to sensitize the reader to this problem and to provide a systematic overview of the most important naturally occurring food toxicants. The Handbook should be of interest to anybody who is concerned with nutritive and health aspects of food. Inasmuch as many of the discussed toxicants can be removed or destroyed by a suitable method of food rpocessing it should be of special value to food technologists.