Exposure assessment to mycotoxins in gluten-free diet for celiac patients.
Mycotoxins are low molecular weight secondary metabolites produced by certain strains of filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium, which attack crops in the field, and grow on foods also during storage under favorable conditions of temperature and humidity. Foods mainly contributing to the intake of mycotoxins with diet are cereals, maize being the most risky commodity due to the potential co-occurrence of more than one mycotoxin, this can be of particular concern especially for vulnerable group of population such as celiac patients that show increased maize-based products consumption. In this study the exposure of celiac patients to fumonisins (FBs) and zearalenone (ZON) has been assessed. The higher exposures, for all the matrices and for both the selected mycotoxins, were for children age group. The lower and upper bound exposure ranged between 348-582 ng/kg bw/day for FBs and 22-83 ng/kg bw/day for ZON; these values result well below the TDI for the selected mycotoxins, representing the 17-29% and 9-33% of the TDI set for FBs and ZON, respectively. Even considering the worst scenario the exposure values reported for children were lower, namely 1385 ng/kg bw/day for FBs and 237 ng/kg bw/day for ZON, than the corresponding toxicological thresholds.
GMO and Mycotoxin Unit, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Italian National Institute of Health, Italy. Electronic address: carlo.brera@iss.it.
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Brera
GMO and Mycotoxin Unit, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Italian National Institute of Health, Italy.
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Debegnach
GMO and Mycotoxin Unit, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Italian National Institute of Health, Italy.
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De Santis
GMO and Mycotoxin Unit, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Italian National Institute of Health, Italy.
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Di Ianni
GMO and Mycotoxin Unit, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Italian National Institute of Health, Italy.
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Gregori
AIC - Italian Society for Celiac Disease, Genoa, Italy.
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Neuhold
Pediatric Gastroenterology and Liver Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Policlinico Umberto I, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
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Valitutti
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000178:diet therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D055050:Diet, Gluten-Free / Q000009:adverse effects; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D037341:Fumonisins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009183:Mycotoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult; D003313:Zea mays / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology; D015025:Zearalenone / Q000032:analysis
D037341:Fumonisins; D009183:Mycotoxins; D015025:Zearalenone
Celiac disease; Exposure assessment; Fumonisins; Gluten-free; Mycotoxins; Zearalenone