Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.5
4.6
Journals
Toxics
Special Issues
Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Food Contaminants and Health Risk Assessment
share announcement

Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Food Contaminants and Health Risk Assessment

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Agrochemicals and Food Toxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 November 2023) | Viewed by 5924

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yu-Syuan Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Food Safety and Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan
Interests: toxicology; health risk assessment; mass spectrometry; food safety; mixture; obesogen; environmental health
Dr. Wei-Hsiang Chang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Food Safety/Hygiene and Risk Management, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Interests: monitoring emerging contaminants; analytical technology for environment and food; mass spectrometry; exposure assessment and biomonitoring; food safety and risk analysis; risk assessments of food additives; human health risk assessment; environmental health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Exposure assessment is an essential component in regulatory science and human health risk assessment, including a top-down approach (i.e., dietary exposure assessment) and a bottom-up approach (i.e., human biomonitoring). Both approaches are analytically demanding, relying on accurate and reliable measurements in food/environmental matrices or biofluids. Mass spectrometry (MS) analysis has versatile applications to trace chemicals in different matrices. Target analyses provide robust and sensitive quantitation for pre-select analytes, while non-target analyses give us a more comprehensive understanding of the assessed sample. These applications are of utmost importance to the exposure and health risk assessment of foodborne chemicals.

This Special Issue intends to showcase how MS analysis can refine the exposure estimates and resulting risks of foodborne chemicals. Foodborne chemicals include, but are not limited to, naturally occurring food toxicants(e.g., mycotoxins), food additives (e.g., preservatives or artificial sweeteners), chemicals formed during the cooking process (e.g., acrylamide, heterocyclic amines, and PAH), and food contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, PCBs, pesticides, and PFAS). We invite research articles, review articles, and short communications related to MS analysis, exposure assessment, and health risk assessment of foodborne chemicals. We also welcome biomonitoring studies with proper dose reconstruction (i.e., convert to oral equivalent doses with PBPK models) and health risk analysis.

Dr. Yu-Syuan Luo
Dr. Wei-Hsiang Chang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • health risk assessment
  • foodborne chemicals
  • mass spectrometry
  • exposure assessment
  • food safety
  • biomonitoring

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

16 pages, 1625 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Agricultural Pesticide Contamination: An Integrated Risk Assessment of Rural Communities of Eswatini
by Sithembiso Sifiso Msibi, Lihchyun Joseph Su, Chung-Yu Chen, Cheng-Ping Chang, Chiou-Jong Chen, Kuen-Yuh Wu and Su-Yin Chiang
Toxics 2023, 11(9), 770; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11090770 - 10 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1360
Abstract
Marked reductions in mean annual rainfall associated with climate change in Eswatini in Southern Africa have encouraged the recycling of irrigation water and the increased use of pesticides in agricultural production, raising concerns about potential ecological and health risks due to long-term exposure [...] Read more.
Marked reductions in mean annual rainfall associated with climate change in Eswatini in Southern Africa have encouraged the recycling of irrigation water and the increased use of pesticides in agricultural production, raising concerns about potential ecological and health risks due to long-term exposure to pesticide residues in soil and irrigation water. This probabilistic integrated risk assessment used liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry to analyze the concentrations of four commonly used agricultural pesticides (ametryn, atrazine, pendimethalin, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)) in irrigation water and topsoil samples from farmlands in Eswatini to assess potential ecological and health risks due to exposure. The concentrations of these pesticides ranged from undetectable to 0.104 µg/L in irrigation water and from undetectable to 2.70 µg/g in soil. The probabilistic multi-pathway and multi-route risk assessments conducted revealed hazard indices exceeding 1.0 for all age groups for ametryn and atrazine, suggesting that the daily consumption of recycled irrigation water and produce from the fields in this area may pose considerable health risks. The indices pertaining to ecological risks had values less than 0.1. Adaptation measures are recommended to efficiently manage pesticide use in agriculture, and further research will ensure that agriculture can adapt to climate change and that the general public and ecosystem are protected. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Food Contaminants and Health Risk Assessment)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 2343 KiB  
Article
Bayesian-Based Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Fipronil in Food: A Case Study in Taiwan
by Yu-Syuan Luo
Toxics 2023, 11(8), 677; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11080677 - 7 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1469
Abstract
Fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, is widely used in agriculture and veterinary practices. Fipronil-induced neurotoxicity and potential adverse effects on humans and aquatic organisms have raised health concerns. Monitoring programs have been implemented globally to assess fipronil residues in food, including fruits, vegetables, and [...] Read more.
Fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, is widely used in agriculture and veterinary practices. Fipronil-induced neurotoxicity and potential adverse effects on humans and aquatic organisms have raised health concerns. Monitoring programs have been implemented globally to assess fipronil residues in food, including fruits, vegetables, and animal products. However, previous exposure assessments have often focused on specific food categories or subsets of items, resulting in limited insights into the overall health risks. Additionally, the large number of non-detect fipronil residues in food has introduced uncertainties in exposure assessment. To address these issues, a probabilistic exposure assessment and dose-response analysis were adopted in this study, considering the sample distribution below the detection limit to better characterize uncertainties and population variability in health risk assessments. The estimated fipronil exposure to the general public ranges from 6.38 × 10−6 ± 0.00017 mg/kg/day to 9.83 × 10−6 ± 0.00034 mg/kg/day. Only one out of 200,000 simulated individuals had a fipronil dose exceeding the probabilistic reference dose (0.048 mg/kg/day, pRfD), which aims to protect 99% of the population with effects less than 10% extra risk. By incorporating uncertainties in exposure and dose-response data, a more comprehensive understanding of the health risks associated with fipronil exposure in the Taiwanese population has been achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Food Contaminants and Health Risk Assessment)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1211 KiB  
Article
Simultaneous Determination of Nine Phthalates in Vegetable Oil by Atmospheric Pressure Gas Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry (APGC-MS/MS)
by Yongjun Xiao, Wen Yee Wong, Li Yan Chan, Chee Keat Yong, Kosuke Abe, Peter Hancock and Simon Hird
Toxics 2023, 11(3), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11030200 - 21 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2645
Abstract
Although the use of phthalates has been restricted worldwide, they remain an issue due to health concerns. Diet is one of the most important exposure pathways for humans and due to their solubility in oil, phthalates are commonly found in edible oil and [...] Read more.
Although the use of phthalates has been restricted worldwide, they remain an issue due to health concerns. Diet is one of the most important exposure pathways for humans and due to their solubility in oil, phthalates are commonly found in edible oil and food high in fat. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using electron ionization (EI) has been commonly used for the analysis of the phthalates in foodstuffs, including edible oil. However, this method suffers from issues with sensitivity and selectivity, as most phthalates are fragmented to generate a common phthalic anhydride fragment ion at m/z 149. The molecular ion cannot be observed due to strong fragmentation in EI. In contrast, atmospheric pressure gas chromatography (APGC) is a soft ionization technique with less fragmentation, whereby the molecular ion can be used as the precursor ion for multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). In this study, a simple and quick method for the determination of phthalates in vegetable oil using APGC-MS/MS was developed, and performance was assessed. The method was based on dilution of the oil in solvent and direct injection without the need for further cleanup. The established method was evaluated for linearity, recovery, precision, method detection limit (MDL), and method quantitation limit (MQL). The obtained MQL in vegetable oil was in the range of 0.015–0.058 mg/kg, despite limiting the injection volume to 1 µL, which is suitable for investigating dietary exposure and future proof against decreases to the regulatory limit. Finally, the developed method was successfully applied to analyze nine phthalates in eight commercially available vegetable oil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Food Contaminants and Health Risk Assessment)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop