Toxins In Food

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

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

Analysis of Food Toxins and Toxicants consists of five sections, providing up-to-date descriptions of the analytical approaches used to detect a range of food toxins. Part I reviews the recent developments in analytical technology including sample pre-treatment and food additives. Part II covers the novel analysis of microbial and plant toxins including plant pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Part III focuses on marine toxins in fish and shellfish. Part IV discusses biogenic amines and common food toxicants, such as pesticides and heavy metals. Part V summarizes quality assurance and the recent developments in regulatory limits for toxins, toxicants and allergens, including discussions on laboratory accreditation and reference materials.

This book discusses different aspects of contamination in Indian food products. Particular attention is given to the presence and analytical detection of detrimental substances such as pesticides, mycotoxins and other biologically-produced toxins, food chemicals and additives with natural or industrial origin. Furthermore, the book addresses the production and the commercial exploitation of native botanical ingredients, and the question if such ingredients should be regarded as foods or drugs. It also sheds light on chemical aspects of organic farming practices in India. Readers will also find information on pesticides and other detrimental chemicals detection in Indian farming. The authors present a useful opinion on how and why food contaminants can lead to border rejections during export, in particular to the European Union.

Toxins and Other Harmful Compounds in Foods provides information on the contents, distribution, chemical properties, and biological activity of toxins and other harmful compounds in foods that are natural components of the raw materials, accumulated due to microbial actions and environmental pollution, or are generated due to processing. This book shows how different factors related to the production of raw materials, as well as to storage and processing conditions, affect the presence and concentration of toxins and other harmful compounds in foods. It shows how various regulations, as well as unit operations and processes used in food production, may eliminate different toxins or generate new ones. The real health hazards for the consumers resulting from the presence of toxic/harmful compounds in aliments are discussed, and various national and international regulations obligatory in agriculture and industry aimed at increasing food safety are presented. Methods of analysis used for detection and determination of undesirable compounds are also discussed, making it possible to understand the effect of storage and processing parameters, as well as systems of quality assurance, on food safety and to select optimum procedures for analytical control.

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 Safety and Toxicity examines the many problems and changes in food safety and toxicity. From a natural science viewpoint, this informative book takes on challenging and important topics impacting food researchers, regulators, producers, healthcare providers, educators, and consumers. It is organized into three main sections. Section 1 explores the relationship between the origin or formation of potentially toxic compounds and their eventual ingestion. Section 2 picks up with information on the potential consequences of this ingestion, and Section 3 concludes with the discussion of prevention and minimization of health risks. By emphasizing food safety, rather than nutritional toxicology, this book puts food hazards and their health risks in true perspective. It also explores the complementary roles of toxicology and epidemiology in studying associations between nutrition and adverse health effects and in assessing toxicological risks from food components in a deliberate manner. Food Safety and Toxicity, with clear, non-technical language and valuable insight, brings you up-to-date on the significant food safety issues confronting us today.

Process-Induced Food Toxicants combines the analytical, health, and risk management issues relating to all of the currently known processing-induced toxins that may be present in common foods. It considers the different processing methods used in the manufacture of foods, including thermal treatment, drying, fermentation, preservation, fat processing, and high hydrostatic pressure processing, and the potential contaminants for each method. The book discusses the analysis, formation, mitigation, health risks, and risk management of each hazardous compound. Also discussed are new technologies and the impact of processing on nutrients and allergens.