Significance of regulation limits in mycotoxin contamination in Asia and risk management programs at the national level

Mycotoxins are the secondary metabolites produced from toxigenic fungi recognized as major food and feed contaminants. They are a source of grave concern in food contamination, resulting in mycotoxicosis in humans and animals. To date, many regulations on the allowable levels of each mycotoxin have been established in several countries. Consumers and food producers expect that toxin contamination in food and feed, based on government regulations and guideline levels, should have no adverse consequences on human and animal health. This review is an extension of the discussions during the international seminar entitled Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Mycotoxins for Food Safety in Asia, which was jointly organized by Kasetsart University (Thailand) and the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Region (Taiwan) and held in Chonburi, Thailand, in September 2011. In this review, we discuss the recent findings on mycotoxins in food and feed, with emphasis on aflatoxins, fumonisins, ochratoxins, and zearalenone, as well as the national management programs that will supply a wider knowledge base for establishing appropriate control measures for mycotoxins in Asian countries. However, we believe that continuing support from national governments and regional communities is essential to encourage and fund activities that contribute to a reliable exposure risk assessment and risk management of mycotoxins in the region, and also to improve our understanding and practices in order to protect consumers from the health threat posed by mycotoxin contamination.

1. Introduction

Mycotoxins are the secondary metabolites produced from toxigenic fungi recognized as major food and feed contaminants. They are a source of grave concern in food contamination, resulting in mycotoxicosis in humans and animals. Typically, toxin production is influenced by moisture, time, temperature, and food or feed substrates. Contamination can occur throughout the food chain—from the field, during harvesting, processing, storage, transportation, and consumption. For raw materials, preharvest contamination of mycotoxins is the most difficult part in risk management. Regarding food safety issues, food and feeds absolutely free from fungi and mycotoxins are needed everywhere to prevent health hazards and to secure the international food trade.

To date, many countries have established regulatory controls over the levels of each mycotoxin—a measure that could help reduce toxin intake by removing the offending products from the market. Both consumers and food producers expect that toxin contamination in food and feed, based on government regulations and guideline levels, will have no adverse consequences on human and animal health. Based on the toxigenicity of several mycotoxins, regulatory levels have been set by many national governments and adopted for use in national and international food trade. Internationally, Codex, the European Union (EU), and other regional organizations have issued a number of decrees mandating the maximum levels of mycotoxins in foods and feeds according to the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake, which was used as the guideline for controlling contamination by mycotoxins, and preventing and reducing toxin contamination for the safety of consumers. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) was founded in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop CODEX standards, guidelines, and other documents pertaining to foods such as the Code of Practice for protecting the health of consumers and ensuring fair practices in food trade. The CAC comprises more than 180 member countries, representing 99% of the world’s population. The Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants has issued codes of practice for the prevention and reduction of mycotoxin contamination in several foods and feeds—for example, codes of practice for ochratoxin A, zearalenone, fumonisins, and tricothecenes in cereals (CAC/RCP 51-2003); codes of practice for patulin in apple juice and apple juice ingredients in other beverages (CAC/RCP 50-2003); codes of practice for aflatoxin contamination in peanuts (CAC/RCP 55-2004), treenuts (CAC/RCP 59-2005), and dried figs(CAC/RCP 65-2008); codes of practice for ochratoxin A in wine (CAC/RCP 63-2007) and coffee (CAC/RCP 69-2009); as well as codes of practice for aflatoxin B1 in raw materials and feeding stuffs for milk-producing animals (CAC/RCP 45-1997).

As food producers and government control authorities in Asian countries are directing their efforts toward the implementation of a correct and reliable evaluation of the real status of mycotoxin contamination in food commodities in order to evaluate the regulation limits of mycotoxins in each food and feed, the first international seminar on risk assessment and risk management of mycotoxins for food safety in Asia was held in September 2011, through the joint efforts of Kasetsart University (Thailand) and the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Region (FFTC; Taiwan), in order to share and exchange relevant knowledge among countries. This paper pointed out two interesting issues: the correlation between the occurrence of mycotoxin contamination in food and feed commodities and current regulation limits of each country as well as the national management programs, which were discussed by 15 invited speakers from seven countries (Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand). The data on mycotoxin occurrence from 2005 up to the present were also evaluated