Proactive Food Safety Management for the Natural Toxins (Phytotoxins)

Abstract

Phytotoxins, a defense mechanism inherent in plants, can pose potential health risks depending on the amount consumed. Toxins such as ricinine, lycorine, ptaquiloside, and cyanogenic glycosides occur naturally in commonly consumed foods and can cause adverse health effects, but there is a significant lack of guidance or regulatory oversight to define safe intake levels of these substances. The aim of this research is to address this regulatory gap by establishing a risk assessment framework tailored to foods containing these plant toxins. In the current absence of effective food safety management strategies for unregulated substances, this research will provide a systematic approach to the risk assessment of these plant toxins. Real food products were analyzed to perform a four-step risk assessment consisting of hazard identification, risk determination, exposure assessment and harm determination. In compliance with European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidelines, we leveraged existing animal study data to establish toxicity starting points and compensate for the lack of human toxicity data, and this approach allowed us to quantitatively assess the risks associated with dietary exposure to these substances, providing a basis for informed decision-making. We expect that our systematic approach will not only identify potential risks, but also provide the basis for a proactive consumer health protection strategy for natural toxins that have been difficult to risk assessment.