Alkaloids in food and feed: an emerging issue?
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Hans van EGMOND RIKILT Institute for Food Safety Cluster Natural Toxins & Pesticides Senior Scientist Wageningen, The Netherlands |
Biography
Hans van Egmond is senior scientist, Cluster Natural Toxins and Pesticides, at the RIKILT-Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen, the Netherlands. In his previous position he worked for many years at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
Hans’ professional interests are primarily in the food safety area, and specifically deal with mycotoxins, phycotoxins and plant toxins. He is author and co-author of approx. 190 research and review publications in the area of natural toxins, and he has (co-)edited several books in this field. He and his colleagues at RIKILT are involved in activities with several international organisations that largely take place at the interface of analytical methodology, risk assessment and legislative requirements for natural toxins in food and feed. Hans is member of the Editorial Board of “Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods” and he is Editor-in-chief of “World Mycotoxin Journal”.
Abstract
Alkaloids are naturally occurring compounds containing basic nitrogen atoms. They are produced by a large variety of organisms, including plants and fungi. Many alkaloids are toxic to humans and animals. Examples of alkaloids that are of concern to human and animal health are the pyrrolizidine and tropane alkaloids (plant toxins) and the ergot alkaloids (mycotoxins). Over the last years, the scientific and regulatory interest for alkaloids has increased, in particular in the EU, both for alkaloids in food and in animal feed. This is witnessed by three recent scientific opinions of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on pyrrolizidine, tropane and ergot alkaloids as undesirable substances in animal feed. Currently there are no analytical methods for these alkaloids that have been formally validated in interlaboratory studies, reliable reference materials (calibrants and matrices) are scarce, and regulations hardly exist.
In particular the pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) have recently attracted much attention. Examples of European food and feed safety issues caused by PA, include animal hay contaminated with ragwort (2006) and rucola salad contaminated with common groundsel (2009). EU DG-SANCO and the JRC-IRMM organized a workshop on PA in food and feed in February 2010 to chart the PA problem area, and to identify issues for further research and possible (regulatory) action. A dramatic episode in north-west Afghanistan (2008) caused by wheat contaminated with charmac (a local weed), led to the death of approx. 50 people in rural communities, and hundreds got ill. Whereas human exposure to PA was primarily due to contaminated bread, it was also found that significant carry-over into goat’s milk and subsequently into a local dairy product (qurut) had occurred.
In the Netherlands a pilot carry-over experiment with dairy cows was conducted in 2009. Three animals were given feed with ragwort and narrow-leaved ragwort, with known amounts of various PA, during a five-week period. Milk samples of these animals were investigated for PA. LC-MS/MS methodology was applied to analyse the samples of animal feed and milk. Senkirkine, jacoline, otosenine, jaconine, florosenine and jacobine were found in the milk. Jacoline was the most abundant of the PA in milk (81%), whereas this toxin was only a minor constituent in the PA profile of the cow’s feed (1%). The transfer rate of this compound was provisionally estimated to be 6-8 %.
The need for reliable and rapid analytical methodology to determine alkaloids in food and feed was recognized by the EC in the first call for proposals for a research project in the 7th Framework Programme in the field of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology. This has resulted in the 4-year Large Collaborative Project CONffIDENCE, coordinated by RIKILT- Institute of Food Safety. The project, which runs from 2008-2012, focuses on the development of simple, fast and multi-analyte detection of various contaminants in food and feed. It includes a work package on alkaloids, where attention is given to pyrrolizidine, tropane and ergot alkaloids.
Alkaloids in food and feed have caused problems in the past and the present. They are now recognized as posing (potential) risks to man and animals, and the current interest is justified from a scientific, food safety and regulatory point of view.