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This opinion of the Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM) of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) presents arguments for an updated risk assessment of diet-related exposure to acrylamide (AA), based on a critical review of scientific evidence relevant to low dose exposure. The SKLM arrives at the conclusion that as long as an appropriate exposure limit for AA is not exceeded, genotoxic effects resulting in carcinogenicity are unlikely to occur. Based on the totality of the evidence, the SKLM considers it scientifically justified to derive a tolerable daily intake (TDI) as a health-based guidance value., 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.)

The last two decades saw a steady increase of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) used for treatment of foods. Although the science of biomaterials exposed to high pressure started more than a century ago, there still seem to be a number of unanswered questions regarding safety of foods processed using HHP. This review gives an overview on historical development and fundamental aspects of HHP, as well as on potential risks associated with HHP food applications based on available literature. Beside the combination of pressure and temperature, as major factors impacting inactivation of vegetative bacterial cells, bacterial endospores, viruses, and parasites, factors, such as food matrix, water content, presence of dissolved substances, and pH value, also have significant influence on their inactivation by pressure. As a result, pressure treatment of foods should be considered for specific food groups and in accordance with their specific chemical and physical properties. The pressure necessary for inactivation of viruses is in many instances slightly lower than that for vegetative bacterial cells; however, data for food relevant human virus types are missing due to the lack of methods for determining their infectivity. Parasites can be inactivated by comparatively lower pressure than vegetative bacterial cells. The degrees to which chemical reactions progress under pressure treatments are different to those of conventional thermal processes, for example, HHP leads to lower amounts of acrylamide and furan. Additionally, the formation of new unknown or unexpected substances has not yet been observed. To date, no safety-relevant chemical changes have been described for foods treated by HHP. Based on existing sensitization to non-HHP-treated food, the allergenic potential of HHP-treated food is more likely to be equivalent to untreated food. Initial findings on changes in packaging materials under HHP have not yet been adequately supported by scientific data., (© 2021 The Authors. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Institute of Food Technologists.)

At present, insects are rarely used by the European food industry, but they are a subject of growing interest as an alternative source of raw materials. The risks associated with the use of insects in the production of foods and food ingredients have not been sufficiently investigated. There is a lack of scientifically based knowledge of insect processing to ensure food safety, especially when these processes are carried out on an industrial scale. This review focuses on the safety aspects that need to be considered regarding the fractionation of insects for the production of foods and food ingredients., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Since 2006, the responsible regulatory bodies have proposed five health-based guidance values (HBGV) for bisphenol A (BPA) that differ by a factor of 250,000. This range of HBGVs covers a considerable part of the range from highly toxic to relatively non-toxic substances. As such heterogeneity of regulatory opinions is a challenge not only for scientific risk assessment but also for all stakeholders, the Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM) of the German Research Foundation (DFG) analyzed the reasons for the current discrepancy and used this example to suggest improvements for the process of HBGV recommendations. A key aspect for deriving a HBGV is the selection of appropriate studies that allow the identification of a point of departure (PoD) for risk assessment. In the case of BPA, the HBGV derived in the 2023 EFSA assessment was based on a study that reported an increase of Th17 cells in mice with a benchmark dose lower bound (BMDL40) of 0.53 µg/kg bw/day. However, this study does not comply with several criteria that are important for scientific risk assessment: (1) the selected end-point, Th17 cell frequency in the spleen of mice, is insufficiently understood with respect to health outcomes. (2) It is unclear, by which mechanism BPA may cause an increase in Th17 cell frequency. (3) It is unknown, if an increase of Th17 cell frequency in rodents is comparably observed in humans. (4) Toxicokinetics were not addressed. (5) Neither the raw data nor the experimental protocols are available. A further particularly important criterion (6) is independent data confirmation which is not available in the present case. Previous studies using other readouts did not observe immune-related adverse effects such as inflammation, even at doses orders of magnitude higher than in the Th17 cell-based study. The SKLM not only provides here key criteria for the use of such studies, but also suggests that the use of such a "checklist" requires a careful and comprehensive scientific judgement of each item. It is concluded that the Th17 cell-based study data do not represent an adequate basis for risk assessment of BPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dietary exposure to N-nitrosamines has recently been assessed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to result in margins of exposure that are conceived to indicate concern with respect to human health risk. However, evidence from more than half a century of international research shows that N-nitroso compounds (NOC) can also be formed endogenously. In this commentary of the Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM) of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the complex metabolic and physiological biokinetics network of nitrate, nitrite and reactive nitrogen species is discussed with emphasis on its influence on endogenous NOC formation. Pioneering approaches to monitor endogenous NOC have been based on steady-state levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in human blood and on DNA adduct levels in blood cells. Further NOC have not been considered yet to a comparable extent, although their generation from endogenous or exogenous precursors is to be expected. The evidence available to date indicates that endogenous NDMA exposure could exceed dietary exposure by about 2–3 orders of magnitude. These findings require consolidation by refined toxicokinetics and DNA adduct monitoring data to achieve a credible and comprehensive human health risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) from borage (Borago officinalis) consumed as herb and tea, may pose a food safety risk. Therefore, the European Union (EU) set maximum levels of PA in borage, among other foodstuffs, which are applicable since July 1st, 2022. Here, a comprehensive LC-MS/MS based profiling of PA and their N -oxides (PANO) in B. officinalis leaves is presented. Based on these results a targeted, quantitative LC-MS/MS method for the determination of individual PA/PANO present in borage was developed. Chromatographic separation was achieved for all PA/PANO detected in B. officinalis. An easy and fast extraction procedure was developed using a design of experiments approach (DOE). The most efficient extraction was achieved using 0.2% formic acid in 10% methanol at a temperature of 47.5 °C for 60 min. The final method was validated and showed good overall accuracy (recoveries 85–121%) and precision (RDS ≤11%). The method was applied to B. officinalis leave material, demonstrating its suitability for the intended purpose. In these borage samples, the acetylated forms, which are not regulated by EU, were among the quantitatively most relevant PA. [Display omitted] • Detailed profiling of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in borage by UHPLC-QToF analysis. • Validated method for quantitation of 18 pyrrolizidine alkaloids found in borage. • Extraction of pyrrolizidine alkaloids optimized by design of experiment approach. • Presence of acid increased pyrrolizidine alkaloid extraction from borage. • High percentage of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in borage not covered by EU regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The working group “Food Technology and Safety” of the DFG Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM) deals with new technologies which are being developed or used to treat foods. Ohmic heating is a new process for heating food by means of direct application of current to the food. Compared to conventional heating methods, this process can achieve shorter heating times while avoiding hot surfaces and can reduce temperature gradients. The electrical, thermophysical and rheological properties of the products play an important role in achieving uniform heating. In addition to the product parameters, process parameters such as the current frequency used, the electrode material and the geometry of the treatment chamber are also relevant. Scope and approach On June 22nd 2015, the SKLM issued an assessment of the process for Ohmic heating of food in German. The English version was issued on December 14th, 2015. The objective of this statement was to describe the state of the research, to draw attention to critical points in the application and science-based further development of the process, and to define the need for research. Key findings and conclusions As with conventional heating, the effectiveness of ohmic heating as a preservation process depends on reaching and maintaining a certain temperature at each point of the food for a sufficient period of time to inactivate microorganisms. The physicochemical product properties are extremely important for achieving heating conditions that are as uniform as possible. Because the electric field strengths applied are low, mainly thermal effects come into play. However, some studies discuss potential additional synergistic or non-thermal inactivation effects of the electric field. As with other processing methods, the structure and concentration of ingredients and contaminants in foods may be altered during ohmic heating. Besides the thermal effects of ohmic heating, it is also necessary to pay attention to potential electrochemical reactions at the contact surface between electrodes and food as well as potential non-thermal effects of the electric field, depending on the process conditions. Therefore, process control becomes particularly important to prevent such effects, which are sometimes undesirable. Compared to conventional heating methods, the primary requirement in evaluating ohmic heating is a standardised means of acquiring the process control parameters. This includes, first and foremost, a space- and time-resolved temperature measurement that takes into account the product and electric field properties. It is absolutely necessary to carry out systematic studies while paying attention to the comparability with respect to product and process parameters as well as the system design. Consequently, the existing gaps in the data records are in part due to the insufficient comparability of the available studies. Moreover, it is necessary to analyze thermal and non-thermal as well as additional process-induced changes in the food and its ingredients. This applies particularly to the effect on the potential allergenicity of the food components. Thermal and non-thermal effects can be studied in a differentiated manner in simulation models. This is regarded as a promising approach for providing a model-like description of combination processes and for optimising process conditions as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]