Quantitative microbiological risk assessments for Salmonella spp. contaminated taiwanese salty chicken in the taiwanese population.

The aim of the study is to develop Salmonella spp. Quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRA) and to evaluate the risk of Salmonellosis illness in the Taiwanese population after consumption of Taiwanese salty chicken (TSC). We assume that Salmonella spp. May contaminate the fresh raw chicken used in TSC. After transport to the diner, fresh raw chicken is received, cleaned, and surface-washed by diner staff. The TSC is then cooked and sold to consumers. We set four different cross-contamination scenarios to evaluate the contamination level of Salmonella spp. In TSC. We used a Monte Carlo simulation method, a probabilistic analysis method, and exceedance risk to evaluate the risk of Salmonellosis illness. When the exceedance risk was 5 %, and taking the Taiwanese population above 19 years old as an example, the rate of contracting Salmonellosis from the consumption of TSC will be 2.94 % (2.94 million per 100 million people) if the chef does not clean their hands, knives, or cutting boards. However, if the chef washes their hands, knives, and cutting boards with cold water and soap, the illness rate of Salmonellosis from consuming TSC will be 1.93E-04 % (193 per 100 million people). Sensitivity analysis indicates that the most important risk factor in the QMRAs of TSC is the temperature of the fresh raw chicken during transportation, following which were the Salmonella spp. Residual. If the staff of the diner separates the cooking tools used for raw ingredients and those for cooked food, the illness risk of Salmonellosis will be very low.

Levels of heavy metal cadmium in rice (Oryza sativa L.) produced in Taiwan and probabilistic risk assessment for the Taiwanese population.

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic pollutant that is widely spread through industrial production and agricultural practices. Epidemiological data has revealed that lifetime exposure to environmentally relevant levels of Cd increases the risk of developing various organ diseases, including chronic kidney, heart, and lung diseases, as well as nervous tissue disorders. This study assessed Cd levels in rice to determine the health risks associated with rice consumption in various age-gender subgroups in Taiwan. The distribution of Cd concentration, the lifetime average daily dose (LADD), and the hazard index (HI) were estimated by Monte Carlo simulation. In the general population, the 50th percentile LADD of Cd for male rice consumers between the ages of 19-65 years was 0.06 µg/kg body weight per day, and the hazard index (HI) 50th, 90th, and 95th percentiles were 0.16, 0.69, and 1.54, respectively. According to the HI heat map for the exposure of the general population to Cd from rice in Taiwan, the highest exposure to Cd was noted in the Yilan area (HI 0.64). Therefore, rice production in the Yilan area should be further monitored to evaluate the levels of Cd contamination.

Microbial Risk Assessment of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Beef Imported from the United States of America to Taiwan.

Outbreaks of foodborne illness caused by pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, which are attributable to the consumption of undercooked beef, have occurred in many countries. In Taiwan, the production of domestic beef accounts for only 5% of the total amount of beef sold. Therefore, we applied different contextual assumptions to develop a quantitative microbial risk assessment of E. coli O157:H7 and evaluated the risk of illness in the Taiwanese population consuming beef imported from the United States of America. The probability distribution showed that, in males aged 19-65 years in the Taiwanese population, for example, when rare beef was consumed 100 servings, there was a 90% probability of randomly intaking seven colony forming units of E. coli O157:H7. When medium beef was consumed 10,000 servings, there was a 90% probability of randomly intaking two colony forming units of E. coli O157:H7. When the exceedance risk was 5%, the rate of foodborne illnesses caused by consuming rare beef contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 was 10-28 cases per 1 million individuals. For medium beef, this rate was 6-13 per 100 million individuals. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the amount of E. coli O157:H7 remaining in beef products after cooking was the most important risk factor, followed by the amount of beef products consumed. Proper cooking of imported beef consumed by the Taiwanese public reduces the incidence of foodborne disease to almost zero, without risk of harm to health.

Probabilistic risk assessment of patulin in imported apple juice and apple-containing beverages in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: In Taiwan, nearly 90% of apples and raw ingredients for apple-based products are imported. Apple juices (137 samples) and apple-containing beverages (35 samples) were collected in Taiwan from imported food and analyzed for patulin content. RESULTS: The results revealed that the incidence levels of patulin for apple juice and apple-containing beverages are 5.84% and 5.71%. The mean contamination levels were 1.7 and 1.4 µg kg-1 for apple juice and apple-containing beverages. One sample exceeded 50 µg kg-1 , the maximum permissible limit according to the Taiwan Sanitation Standard for the Tolerance of Mycotoxins in Foods. The estimated intake of patulin for consumers ranged from 5.4 to 18.0 ng kg-1 body weight per day for apple juice and between 6.1 and 11.2 ng kg-1 body weight for apple-containing beverages. The highest average patulin intake was observed among infants aged 0-3 years, followed by children aged 4-12 years old. Finally, the hazard index (HI) for the 50th, 90th, and 95th percentiles are 0.0186, 0.1201, and 0.2048, respectively, for infants aged 0-3 years. CONCLUSION: The dietary intake of patulin from imported apple juices and apple-containing beverages is well below the safety levels and does not present a risk for adult and children consumers. However, it is important to point out that we only analyzed imported apple juices and apple-containing beverages. More studies are necessary to establish if the HI for patulin will still remain below 1 when other foods and beverages are included in the risk calculations. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

Using disease-burden method to evaluate the strategies for reduction of aflatoxin exposure in peanuts.

Aflatoxin is a fungal secondary metabolite with high toxicity that is capable of contaminating various types of food crops. It has been identified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Chronic aflatoxin exposure has caused worldwide concern as a matter of public food safety. Peanuts and peanut products are the major sources of aflatoxin exposure. Therefore, some reduction interventions have been developed to minimize contamination throughout the peanut production chain. The purpose of this study is to estimate the efficacy of interventions in reducing the health impact of hepatocellular carcinoma caused by aflatoxin contamination in peanuts. The estimated total Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) were calculated using FDA-iRISK software. Six aflatoxin reduction strategies were evaluated, including good agricultural practice (GAP), biocontrol, Purdue Improved Crop Storage packaging, basic processing, ozonolysis, and ultraviolet irradiation. The results indicated that basic processing could prevent huge public health loss of 4,079.7-21,833 total DALYs per year. In addition, GAP and biocontrol were both found to be effective strategies in the farm field. Meanwhile, the other three interventions had limited effectiveness in reducing total DALYs. In conclusion, this study could help farmers, processing plants, and government policy makers to alleviate aflatoxin contamination issues in the peanut production chain.

Assessing Aflatoxin Exposure Risk from Peanuts and Peanut Products Imported to Taiwan.

Aflatoxins are highly toxic and cause disease in livestock and humans. In order to assess Taiwan population exposure to aflatoxin from peanuts and peanut products, a total of 1089 samples of peanut candy, peanut butter, and peanuts etc. were collected in the period from 2011 to 2017 and analyzed using a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometer. The overall mean contamination levels of aflatoxin in peanuts and peanut products were 2.40 µg/kg of aflatoxin B1, 0.41 µg/kg of aflatoxin B2, 0.19 µg/kg of aflatoxin G1, and 0.03 µg/kg of aflatoxin G2. We use margin of exposure (MOE) as a tool to improve food safety management. According to MOE levels of aflatoxins in peanuts and peanut products from China, Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, and the Philippines were above the safe lower limit of 10,000, indicating an absence of public health or safety risk for the majority of the population. However, products from Vietnam were under the MOE safe lower limit, suggesting that regulatory actions must be continued to avoid excessive consumer exposure.

Assessing Risk-Based Upper Limits of Melamine Migration from Food Containers.

Melamine contamination of food has become a major food safety issue because of incidents of infant disease caused by exposure to this chemical. This study was aimed at establishing a safety limit in Taiwan for the degree of melamine migration from food containers. Health risk assessment was performed for three exposure groups (preschool children, individuals who dine out, and elderly residents of nursing homes). Selected values of tolerable daily intake (TDI) for melamine were used to calculate the reference migration concentration limit (RMCL) or reference specific migration limit (RSML) for melamine food containers. The only existing values of these limits for international standards today are 1.2 mg/L (0.2 mg/dm2 ) in China and 30 mg/L (5 mg/dm2 ) in the European Union. The factors used in the calculations included the specific surface area of food containers, daily food consumption rate, body weight, TDI, and the percentile of the population protected at a given migration concentration limit (MCL). The results indicate that children are indeed at higher risk of melamine exposure at toxic levels than are other groups and that the 95th percentile of MCL (specific surface area = 5) for children aged 1-6 years should be the RMCL (0.07 mg/dm2 ) for protecting the sensitive and general population.

Food safety risk assessment for estimating dietary intake of sulfites in the Taiwanese population.

The purpose of this study was to assess the health risk associated with dietary intake of sulfites for Taiwanese general consumers by conducting a total diet study (TDS). We evaluated the exposure of Taiwanese to sulfites in the diet and its associated health risk. This study used a list of 128 food items representing 83% of the total daily diet. Among the 128 food items, 59 items may contain sulfites. Samples of the 59 food items were collected and subjected to chemical analysis to determine the sulfur dioxide concentration. Health risk was assessed by calculating the ratio of exposure level to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) level of the analyte. For high-intake consumers, the HI of sulfites was 19.7% ADI for males over the age of three years at the 95th percentile; whereas for females over the age of 66, the HI was 17.8% ADI. The HI for high-intake consumers was above 10% ADI. This suggests that regulatory actions must be continued and that consumers should be advised to be aware of processed foods with relatively high contamination to avoid excessive exposure.

Dietary exposure estimates for the food preservatives benzoic acid and sorbic acid in the total diet in Taiwan.

The purpose was to assess the health risk to general consumers in Taiwan associated with dietary intake of benzoic acid and sorbic acid by conducting a total diet study (TDS). The hazard index (HI) in percent acceptable daily intake (%ADI) of benzoic acid and sorbic acid for eight exposure groups classified by age were calculated. In high-intake consumers, the highest HI of benzoic acid was 54.1%ADI for males aged 1-2 years old at the 95th percentile, whereas for females, the HI was 61.7%ADI for aged over 66 years old. The highest HI of sorbic acid for male and female consumers aged 3-6 years old at the 95th percentile were 14.0%ADI and 12.2%ADI, respectively. These results indicate that the use of benzoic acid and sorbic acid as preservatives at the current level of use in the Taiwanese diet does not constitute a public health and safety concern.