International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences

Special Issue

Human and Animal Exposures to Food and Feed Contaminants

  • Submission Deadline: 30 January 2015
  • Status: Submission Closed
  • Lead Guest Editor: Wilfred Angie Abia
About This Special Issue
This special issue of the IJNFS is devoted to outstanding research findings on “Human and animal exposures to food and feed contaminants”. It is well known that the quality of the food and feed consumed by humans and animals need to be void of contaminants or contain acceptable levels of the contaminants in order to be regarded as “safe”. However, the safety of agricultural commodities and their processed products including animal feed are in most cases unknown partly due to lack of instrumentation to precisely analyze for occurrences of different food/feed contaminants.

Food and feed can be simultaneously contaminated by different contaminants and at various points along the food and feed value chain e.g., during cultivation, harvesting, transportation and storage and/or processing stages. These contaminants may include mycotoxins, pesticide residues, heavy metals, bisphenol A etc and are known to be harmful to animal and human health. In view of their toxic effects and high frequencies of occurrences in food and feed, regulatory agencies such as FDA, FAO, Codex Alimentarius, EC and those situated in several nations have fixed maximum tolerable limits (MTLs) for some of these contaminants in different food matrices.

Assessment of human and animal exposure levels to these contaminants has however been very difficult due to lack/unavailability of instrumentation with very high sensitivity to detect and quantify very small amounts of the contaminants in biological samples. Currently, the developed countries have exploited biomarkers of exposure and/or biomarkers of effects to determine dietary exposure levels to various food contaminants and so compare exposures with regulatory levels (MTLs) to reduce exposure levels. Conversely, some developing countries are concerned with occurrence levels of a few contaminants and depend on food frequency questionnaires to assess dietary exposure levels while others are simply kept in a fix partly due to lack of data.

Health implications due to exposure to a given contaminant may vary depending on the type and potency, and duration of exposure (chronic or acute) of the toxicant; age, sex and health status of exposed individuals; interactions between various toxins, and/or toxin and body components such as proteins and DNA etc. These contaminants serve as risk factors to diversified animal and human diseases. For example, mycotoxins are carcinogenic, hepatotoxic and immunosuppressive, while bisphenol A is a risk factor for several metabolic disorders. In view of the above facts, special attention is needed for outstanding findings from researchers whose areas of interest span through, but not limited to, studies on food contaminants (mycotoxins, pesticides/ pesticide residues, bisphenol A, heavy metals), their occurrence levels, biomarkers/bio-monitoring, and/or exposure assessment/health risk assessment.

Lead Guest Editor
  • Wilfred Angie Abia

    School of Toxicology, Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Institute for Management and Professional Training, Yaounde, Cameroon

Guest Editors
  • Ahmed A. Tayel

    Department of Industrial Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Research Institute, University of Sadat City, El-Sadat City, Egypt

  • Chibundu Ezekiel

    Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Nigeria

Published Articles
  • Sustainability, Security and Safety in the Feed-to-Fish Chain: Focus on Toxic Contamination

    Alberto Mantovani , Daniela Ferrari , Chiara Frazzoli

    Issue: Volume 4, Issue 2-2, March 2015
    Pages: 6-24
    Received: 5 February 2015
    Accepted: 30 March 2015
    Published: 6 May 2015
    DOI: 10.11648/j.ijnfs.s.2015040202.12
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    Abstract: The paper discusses the issue of feed ingredients in aquaculture as a telling example of implementation of a sustainable food safety strategy, aimed at protecting the health of next generation, under the One Health paradigm. Finfish and fishery products are a main nutrition security component as a valuable source of animal protein, particularly in ... Show More
  • Review of Meat and Caffeine and the Risk of Bladder Cancer

    Rami Nasr , Aline Yacoubian , Rana Abu Dargham , Raja Khauli , Rami Abou Ghaida

    Issue: Volume 4, Issue 2-2, March 2015
    Pages: 1-5
    Received: 18 November 2014
    Accepted: 28 November 2014
    Published: 27 December 2014
    DOI: 10.11648/j.ijnfs.s.2015040202.11
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    Abstract: Bladder cancer (BCa) is a main health issue in both developed and developing countries, especially for men with an incidence that is three to five times greater than that of women. The majority of bladder cancer occurs in males and there is a 14-fold variation in the incidence internationally. About 1,596,670 new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2011... Show More