Are Portuguese children exposed to mycotoxins through infant foods? A preliminary approach

Comunicação a conviteMycotoxins are a wide group of fungal secondary metabolites that cause toxic and carcinogenic outcomes in humans exposed to them. The major foodborne mycotoxins of public health interest are the aflatoxins, fumonisins, trichothecene and ochratoxin A (OTA)1,2. Infants have a more restricted diet and they generally consume more food on a body weight basis than adults thus they are a particularly vulnerable population group to food contaminants as mycotoxins. In Portugal, Alvito et al. had reported the presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and M1 (AFM1) and OTA in baby foods3 and no data are available until now concerning the exposure assessment of Portuguese children to these mycotoxins. Exposure assessment, which evaluates the degree of intake of a certain contaminant, is one of the four steps included in risk assessment. Although several scientific reports have been published in order to propose the best methodologies for the exposure assessment framework, to date harmonization is far from being achieved4. The aim of the present study was to estimate the exposure of Portuguese children to mycotoxins due to infant foods ingestion, based on a probabilistic approach, using a risk analysis software (@Risk 6 for Excel, Palisade). The mycotoxin occurrence3 of AFB1, AFM1 and OTA in infant foods and consumption data for children until 3 years old were modeled. Consumption data were based on preliminary results recently obtained during a pilot study performed at Primary Health Care Unit from Cascais under the Mycomix Project. Different strategies had been considered to treat the left censored data.FC