Toxins produced by living organisms are all around us, including in food and food packaging, but when are they likely to cause problems?
In June, the annual safefood Biotoxins Knowledge Network conference focused on how analytical chemistry can uncover biotoxin issues in the food environment.
More than 60 delegates from industry, regulatory bodies and research attended the one-day joint research conference, which was held in partnership with the Irish Society of Toxicology. The event took place at Malone Lodge Hotel in Belfast.
Presentations centred on the theme of Analytical Chemistry meets Toxicology and included a talk by Dr Toby Athersuch, a Lecturer in Environmental Toxicology & Biomarkers in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London. He discussed the concept of the “human exposome” (lifetime environmental exposures) and analytical strategies for metabolic profiling.
Dr Linda Bengtström, of the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, presented new data on the timely issue of chemical contamination of foodstuffs from food packaging, a topic that has featured in the national press recently.
Dr Toine Bovee and Dr Arjen Gerssen, both from the RIKILT Institute of Food Safety at Wageningen UR, presented on marine biotoxin analysis. Toine spoke of his new research into the development of cell-based bioassays to detect marine toxins in seafood, with the aim of replacing current animal-testing methods.
Dr Gerssen focused on recent developments in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and their contribution to the field of marine biotoxin analysis.
Participant feedback about the meeting was “extremely positive and very pleasing”, according to Biotoxins Knowledge Network Facilitator Prof Chris Elliott from Queen’s University Belfast.
“To really progress some of the complex issues around food safety, we need to get experts from different disciplines talking and working together,” he says. “The safefood network meetings give a unique opportunity for such linkages to be made and progress.”
Comments