The food industry continually faces new and emerging risks from the expanding globalization of the supply chain and environmental factors that impact food safety and public health across the globe. With a significant environmental factor being that of global climate change, it is critical that manufacturers understand the potential contaminant risks in areas from which they source ingredients, and work closely with their suppliers to understand what they are doing to mitigate those risks.
A recent report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Emerging chemical risks in food and feed, provides some of that information, with discussion on the CLEFSA project – focused on climate change as a driver of emerging risks for food and feed safety, plant, animal health and nutritional quality. With a goal of developing and testing new methodologies for the identification, characterization, and analysis of emerging risks linked with climate change, the researchers identified and scored emerging issues from scenarios that are projected to occur by 2050. The impact (based on severity, duration and frequency of the potential effects) and likelihood of each issue were scored by considering the hazard conditions of each during the “reference” period (1981–2010) and “near-future” period (2021-2050).
From this, a total of 19 emerging issues were characterized, with nine of the issues rated as most critical – all nine of which are related to toxins produced by microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, algae) whose growth is strongly affected by climate change.
Emerging contaminant issues expected to have the greatest impact on human health are:
- Deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) – are commonly occurring mycotoxins produced by fungi of the Fusarium family. DON is commonly known as “vomitoxin” due to its emetic effect particularly in pigs, but it is among the least toxic of mycotoxins, chiefly causing symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in humans and animals. ZEN may cause adverse estrogenic or other toxicological effects in humans and animals.
- Ciguatoxins – a class of toxic polycyclic compounds found in certain reef-fish that cause ciguatera fish poisoning, a foodborne illness characterized mainly by neurological and gastrointestinal effects and, in severe cases, cardiovascular disorders.
- β-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) – a non-proteinogenic amino acid produced by cyanobacteria found in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. A neurotoxin, BMAA can be found in shark fins, so consumption of shark fin soup may pose a health risk.
- Cyanotoxins – these potent, natural toxins, including BMAA, can be produced by a variety of cyanobacteria and can cause toxicity to the nervous system and liver. Cyanotoxins accumulate in marine organisms such as shellfish, and upon consumption can cause shellfish poisoning.
- Domoic acid – a naturally occurring toxin produced by certain types of red algae that can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in animals and humans.
- Palytoxin – an extremely potent toxin produced in marine organisms possibly by bacteria occurring in the organisms. As a non-protein vasoconstrictor substance, it can result in skeletal musculature damage, other organ toxicities, or death by cardiac arrest.
- Okadaic acid – a toxin produced by several species of dinoflagellates, is known to accumulate in marine sponges and shellfish and is the leading cause of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning.
- Pinnatoxins – are neurotoxins produced by marine algae that can accumulate in bivalve mollusks. There are no known human poisonings, although toxicity in laboratory mice indicates adverse effects on breathing and muscle control, and even death at sufficient doses.
- Tetrodotoxin (TTX) and TTX analogues – are neurotoxins produced by marine bacteria associated with certain fish, notably pufferfish, and other marine gastropods. TTX is extremely toxic and multiple human poisonings have occurred, resulting in paralysis, convulsions, and even death.
Other emerging contaminant issues identified in the report include: Aflatoxins, Ochratoxin A, Hormones, Pyrrolizidine alkaloids, Mercury, Plastic debris, Heavy metals (As, Pb, Cd), Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Saxitoxin, and Azaspiracid.
With climate change driving geographic alterations in weather events such as increased air and water temperatures; increased/decreased precipitation leading to drought or flooding; and extreme events (e.g., hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis), the growth, survival, and virulence of pathogens and toxins can be impacted. This can, in turn, increase the potential risk to crops and foods. Adding to that is the expectation that climate change will cause the emergence or reemergence of new hazards, increase the exposure or susceptibility to known hazards, and elevate the severity, duration and/or frequency of the effects of the hazards.
It is important to note that no issues with extremely low or high impact were identified in a near-future climate scenario. However, long-term climate change is expected to cause the emergence or reemergence of new hazards, increase the exposure or susceptibility to known hazards, and elevate the severity, duration and/or frequency of the effects of the hazards.
While foods can become contaminated with chemical substances in processing or pre-packaging, many chemical food contaminants originate with the ingredients of the food. Thus, understanding the pathways of contaminants, the impacts of weather, and emergence of new hazards – and where each of these is most likely within your supply chain can provide you with a blueprint for protection. Both ensuring that your suppliers understand and mitigate the potential within their product and inspecting and testing supplies coming into your facility can help to ensure you are catching a contaminant before you’ve processed it into a finished product.
Irrespective of what you think around climate change and potential causes, the reality is that environmental changes do occur over time and such changes can impact the growth of certain microorganisms. As we have noted above, sometimes these microorganisms can produce toxic agents that may cause significant harm to consumers. Thus, it is always important to be thinking of novel agents that may emerge in the supply chain that require new controls. Essentially, this is just part of the ongoing evolution of risk-based preventive control food safety systems and, as such, should always be in the back of your mind as you face and manage new risks and challenges.
