title: The safety assessment of food ingredients derived from plant cell, tissue and organ cultures: a review.
abstract: Plant cell, tissue and organ cultures (PCTOC) have become an increasingly attractive alternative for the production of various high molecular weight molecules which are used as flavourings, fragrances, colouring agents and food additives. Although PCTOC products are cultivated in vitro in a contamination free environment, the raw material produced from PCTOC may contain many components apart from the target compound. In some cases, PCTOC raw materials may also carry toxins, which may be naturally occurring or accumulated during the culture process. Assessment of the safety of PCTOC products is, therefore, a priority of the biotech industries involved in their production. The safety assessment involves the evaluation of starting material, production process and the end product. Before commercialisation, PCTOC products should be evaluated for their chemical and biological properties, as well as for their toxicity. In this review, measures and general criteria for biosafety evaluation of PCTOC products are addressed and thoroughly discussed.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Development of Advanced Horticultural Technology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, Republic of Korea; Department of Botany, Karnatak University, Dharwad 580003, India. Electronic address: nmurthy60@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: Hosakatte Niranjana
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Murthy
authors.affiliation: The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 139 Ruski Blvd, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Milen I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Georgiev
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Development of Advanced Horticultural Technology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: So-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Karnatak University, Dharwad 580003, India.
authors.forename: Vijayalaxmi S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Dandin
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Development of Advanced Horticultural Technology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kee-Yoeup
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Paek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003257:Consumer Product Safety / Q000592:standards*; D005503:Food Additives; D064088:Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points / Q000379:methods*; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D064209:Phytochemicals; D059828:Plant Cells
chemical_list: D005503:Food Additives; D064209:Phytochemicals
keywords: Biosafety; Food ingredients; Phytochemicals; Plant cell tissue and organ culture products; Toxicological evaluation