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Environmental concentrations of 25 pesticides in superficial water were employed to conduct an ecological risk assessment (ERA) in a mixed land-use basin utilized as a drinking water source. A deterministic risk assessment (RQ) was utilized to evaluate the chronic risk to aquatic biota, while a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) approach was applied to assess the acute and chronic risk in the most sensitive species and at the community level. A high risk was identified for insecticides (pyrethroids, organophosphates and organochlorines). RQs ranged from 4.0e -4 (2,4-D) to 105.3 (ethion) considering median concentrations and from 8.0e -4 (2,4-D) to 230 (p,p'-DDT) considering extreme concentrations. Temporal variation in ΣRQs showed the highest risk during spring and summer months, which is related to the crop calendar and land use in the Laguna del Cisne basin. For PRA, the probability of exceeding the hazardous concentration HC5 (5th percentile) was higher for the most sensitive species in chronic exposure, especially for cypermethrin (38.9 %), permethrin (25.6 %), and chlorpyrifos (16.6 %). In the case of acute exposures, the probability of surpassing HC5 was higher for the entire freshwater biota, with the highest values observed for bifenthrin (28.3 %), cypermethrin (25.5 %), permethrin (11.75 %), and ethion (11.1 %). The advantages and disadvantages of PRA for assessing pesticide ecological risk were compared with the conventional deterministic RQs approach, highlighting that PRA offers improvements over the deterministic risk assessment, especially for organophosphate pesticides. Additionally, PRA provides a more comprehensive evaluation of risk for both short and long-term exposure, has the potential to incorporate others available toxicity data (e.g., LD50, Daily Intake), and utilizes different hazardous concentrations, such as HC5, HC10, and HC50. Our findings emphasize the urgent need to establish a national regulatory framework to evaluate and mitigate pesticide risks in aquatic ecosystems, especially in drinking water source like Laguna del Cisne., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lack of guidance regarding selection of food intake values for allergen risk assessment can lead to different outcomes for similar levels of allergens in food products. Several food consumption survey databases (United States, North-West Europe, and Netherlands) were analyzed to identify optimal food intake percentiles using a sensitivity analysis. Deterministic risk assessment scenarios using the 50th percentile up to the maximum intake per food group were compared with probabilistic risk assessment outcomes. The optimal intake percentile is the lowest percentile that results in a deterministic risk assessment outcome compliant with the predefined safety objective, i.e., the predefined risk of an objective allergic reaction at ED01, ED2.5, ED05 or ED10 doses of 14 allergenic foods. The P50 intake met these criteria in more than 99.9% of all 28,784 scenarios tested. The P50 is therefore recommended for deterministic allergen risk assessment and calculation of action levels for precautionary allergen labelling. In case a P50 value is not available, the mean is a good alternative, as analyses of the intake data showed that the mean generally is between the P50 and P65., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

One of the input parameters in food allergy risk assessment is the amount of a given food consumed at an eating occasion. There is no consensus on how to use food consumption data when assessing the risk from unintended allergen presence in food products. A sensitivity analysis was performed to establish the optimal food consumption estimate for a deterministic food allergy risk assessment. Exposure was calculated for consumption percentiles (50 th percentile, P50 to maximum) using the iFAAM consumption database in conjunction with an allergen concentration range from 1 to 1000 ppm. The resulting allergen intakes were compared to the allergic population reference doses proposed by Taylor et al. (2014) for 10 major allergenic foods. Optimal consumption percentiles were defined as those which predicted an intake below the relevant reference dose and met the defined acceptable risk level confirmed by probabilistic risk assessments. Analysis showed that, for 99% of the food groups, the P50 consumption met our criteria, while the P75 did so for 100% of the food groups. We suggest that the P75 is the optimal point estimate for use in deterministic food allergy risk assessment. It meets the safety objective and is adequately conservative for a public health context., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Use of glyphosate in crop production can lead to residues of the active substance and related metabolites in food. Glyphosate has never been considered acutely toxic; however, in 2015 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) proposed an acute reference dose (ARfD). This differs from the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) who in 2016, in line with their existing position, concluded that an ARfD was not necessary for glyphosate. This paper makes a comprehensive assessment of short-term dietary exposure to glyphosate from potentially treated crops grown in the EU and imported third-country food sources. European Union and global deterministic models were used to make estimates of short-term dietary exposure (generally defined as up to 24 h). Estimates were refined using food-processing information, residues monitoring data, national dietary exposure models, and basic probabilistic approaches to estimating dietary exposure. Calculated exposures levels were compared to the ARfD, considered to be the amount of a substance that can be consumed in a single meal, or 24-h period, without appreciable health risk. Acute dietary intakes were <100% of the ARfD for all foodstuffs, except wild fungi, when calculated using the EFSA model. The model assumptions differ from those of the source model (German national model), resulting in the use of a higher variability factor. Intakes estimated with the German model represented only 18% of the ARfD. The impact of differing assumptions regarding variability and other input parameters is discussed. Probabilistic exposure estimates showed that the acute intake on no person-days exceeded 10% of the ARfD, even for the pessimistic scenario.

Glyphosate is a herbicide used to control broad-leaved weeds. Some uses of glyphosate in crop production can lead to residues of the active substance and related metabolites in food. This paper uses data on residue levels, processing information and consumption patterns, to assess theoretical lifetime dietary exposure to glyphosate. Initial estimates were made assuming exposure to the highest permitted residue levels in foods. These intakes were then refined using median residue levels from trials, processing information, and monitoring data to achieve a more realistic estimate of exposure. Estimates were made using deterministic and probabilistic methods. Exposures were compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI)-the amount of a substance that can be consumed daily without an appreciable health risk. Refined deterministic intakes for all consumers were at or below 2.1% of the ADI. Variations were due to cultural differences in consumption patterns and the level of aggregation of the dietary information in calculation models, which allows refinements for processing. Probabilistic exposure estimates ranged from 0.03% to 0.90% of the ADI, depending on whether optimistic or pessimistic assumptions were made in the calculations. Additional refinements would be possible if further data on processing and from residues monitoring programmes were available., (Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by filamentous fungi, as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. The first objective of this research was to study the presence of mycotoxins in 60 samples of refrigerated pizza dough, by extraction with methanol and determination by liquid chromatography associated with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Then, the estimated dietary intakes (EDIs) of these mycotoxins, among the Spanish population, was calculated and the health risk assessment was performed, comparing the EDIs data with the tolerable daily intake values (TDIs). The mycotoxins detected in the analyzed samples were aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1), zearalenone (ZEA), enniatin A (ENA), enniatin A1 (ENA1), enniatin (ENB), enniatin B1 (ENB1) and BEA (beauvericin) with average concentration of the positive samples of 4.09 μg/kg, 0.50 μg/kg, 0.79 μg/kg, 77.78 μg/kg, 14.96 μg/kg, 4.54 μg/kg, 3.37 μg/kg, 1.69 μg/kg and 22.39 μg/kg, respectively. The presence of ZEA, ENA1, ENB and ENB1 was detected in 100% of the samples, AFB2 in 32%, AFB1 in 23%, ENA in 8% and BEA in 3%. Twelve percent of the samples contaminated with AFB1 and 12% of the doughs contaminated with ZEA exceeded the EU legislated maximum limits. The dietary intakes were estimated considering three different age groups of population, and the EDIs calculated for the mycotoxins detected in the samples were all below the established TDI., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the present study, the chronic cumulative exposure to organophosphorus (OPs), carbamates (CBs) and pyrethroid and pyrethrin (PPs) pesticides in the region of Valencia through fruit and vegetables consumption is presented. A total of 752 samples and 84 pesticides were studied of which, 52 were OPs, 23 CBs and 9 PPs. Residue data were derived from the Valencia Region monitoring program 2007-2011 and food consumption levels from a questionnaire-based dietary survey conducted in 2010 in the same area. The relative potency factor (RPFs) approach was used to estimate chronic cumulative dietary exposure to OPs, CBs and PPs using acephate, oxamyl and deltamethrin as index compounds, respectively. The exposure was estimated using a deterministic approach and two scenarios were assumed for left-censored results: the lower-bound (LB) scenario, in which unquantified results (below the limit of quantification (LOQ)) were set to zero and the upper-bound (UB) scenario, in which unquantified results were set to the LOQ. Results demonstrate that the chronic exposure of the young (<16 years) and adult (≥ 16 years) population to pesticides through fruits and vegetables is under control (even at high or frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables), for the three groups of pesticides., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)