title: How Safe Is Safe for Marine Toxins Monitoring?
abstract: Current regulation for marine toxins requires a monitoring method based on mass spectrometric analysis. This method is pre-targeted, hence after searching for pre-assigned masses, it identifies those compounds that were pre-defined with available calibrants. Therefore, the scope for detecting novel toxins which are not included in the monitoring protocol are very limited. In addition to this, there is a poor comprehension of the toxicity of some marine toxin groups. Also, the validity of the current approach is questioned by the lack of sufficient calibrants, and by the insufficient coverage by current legislation of the toxins reported to be present in shellfish. As an example, tetrodotoxin, palytoxin analogs, or cyclic imines are mentioned as indicators of gaps in the system that require a solid comprehension to assure consumers are protected.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacolog&#237;a, Facultad Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain. luis.botana@usc.es.
authors.forename: Luis M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Botana
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacolog&#237;a, Facultad Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain. amparo.alfonso@usc.es.
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alfonso
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacolog&#237;a, Facultad Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain. ines.rodriguez@usc.es.
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Santiago, 27002 Lugo, Spain. anamaria.botana@usc.es.
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Botana
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacolog&#237;a, Facultad Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain. mcarmen.louzao@usc.es.
authors.forename: Maria Del Carmen
authors.initials: Mdel C
authors.lastname: Louzao
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiolog&#237;a, Facultad Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain. mmercedes.rodriguez@usc.es.
authors.forename: Mercedes R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Vieytes
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005506:Food Contamination; D006801:Humans; D008387:Marine Toxins / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017747:Seafood / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D008387:Marine Toxins
keywords: food safety; marine toxin; mass spectrometry; monitoring; toxicity equivalency factor