Food Safety and Regulatory Measures

Biography

Biography: Jan Kuhlmann

Abstract

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) and tropane alkaloids (TA) are potentially harmful plant metabolites that occur frequently in nature. Plants seem to produce these substances in order to defend themselves against damage by herbivorous animals or other invasive organisms. Thousands of plant species are known to produce PAs, of which several hundred different structures have been identified. They consist commonly of structurally non-diverse alkaloid bases that are esterified with a broad variety of one or two necine acids. From the perspective of food safety certain 1,2-unsaturated alkaloids, as for example retronecine and its derivatives, are of high relevance as several studies have indicated with evidence that they are assumed to cause genotoxic effects. Since years, PAs have been known to occur in honey but recently it seems also in other foods, food supplements and pharmaceuticals of plant origin can be contaminated. The reason therefore appears to be the accidental co-harvesting of PA and/or TA producing weeds together with the target crop. This makes a food-related estimation of potential contamination difficult as in most cases it is impossible to say what kind and amount of weeds might have been included. Risk assessment based on available analytical methods also seems to be difficult due to the limited number of PAs and TAs that are covered by recent methods. This presentation focuses on the identification of foods that might contain PAs and TAs as well as on the availability of analytical methods, their scope and comparability.