The Food Standards Agency has just completed tests on a round-up of different foods for babies and children in the run-up to EU talks to set limits of mycotoxins in these foods. None fell over the legal limits.
"Overall, the levels of mycotoxins found were very low - less than 10 per cent of the samples tested had a detectable level," said the agency last week.
Mycotoxins are naturally-occurring toxins that are produced by certain fungi that can grow on various foods such as cereals, nuts, dried fruits, apples and legumes under certain environmental conditions.
High levels of exposure to these mycotoxins have been found to cause a range of adversehealth effects in laboratory animals. There is a concern that similar effects may occur in humans through long-term consumption of foods and beverages that contain relatively high levels of these contaminants.
Legal limits for their presence in infant foods apply only to foods intended for infants or young children up to three years old and comply with nutritional requirements set down in European Union law.
Mycotoxins analysed for the FSA study were composed of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2, ochratoxin A and patulin.
Tolerable Daily Intakes (TDIs) have been set by scientific committees such as the former SCF (EC Scientific Committee for Food) and are based on threshold levels, identified during toxicological studies, below which the toxins are considered to not cause an adverse effect.
A TDI represents an estimate of the amount of a contaminant, expressed on a body weight basis, that can be ingested daily over a lifetime without appreciable health risks.
In 2000 the SCF endorsed a provisional maximum TDI of 0.4 ug/kg bw/day for patulin, a figure derived from a review carried out by the World Health Organisation's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives. Patulin exhibits strong antibiotic activity against bacteria, and can cause haemorrhages, oedema and dilation of the intestinal tract in experimental animals. Studies have also shown that patulin can harm the immune system.
In 1998 the SCFexpressed the opinion that exposures to ochratoxin A should be kept below 5 ng/kg bw/day because of uncertainties about the impact ochratoxin A - shown to damage, and cause cancer of, the kidneys in laboratory animals - on human health.
In contrast to the other mycotoxins, no TDI has been set for aflatoxins because they have been shown to cause cancer in the liver of laboratory animals by damaging DNA. They have also been linked to liver cancer in a number of developing countries, where some foods that are an important part of the diet can contain high levels of aflatoxins, a genotoxic carcinogen.
The SCF recommended that aflatoxin concentrations in food should be reduced to the lowest levels reasonably achievable.
Since ancient times these substances, produced by moulds that have contaminated and grown on foods, have caused sickness, and in extreme cases death, in people and farm animals. But they rest a modern day problem that the food industry must tackle on a daily basis.
It is estimated that 25 per cent of all agricultural crops worldwide are contaminated by moulds that produce mycotoxins. The toxins are mostly found in cereals, nuts, cocoa and coffee beans, but also in other foods, like wine, dried fruits and meat, particularly when the water content/activity and the temperature are poorly controlled.
A total of 199 samples of infant and baby foods, including breakfast/rusk products, baby rice, savoury products and desert/cereal bar/biscuits, were bought and analysed between November 2003 and January 2004 for the FSA survey.
A wide range of brands and retailers, including supermarkets and smaller shops, was covered in order to ensure that the survey was representative of the UK infant and baby food market, said the agency.
None of the samples were over the legal limits for total aflatoxin, aflatoxin B1, or ochratoxin A. Patulin was not detected in any of the 30 samples tested for it.