Insights in food safety: mycotoxins and food allergens (2 h + 2 h)
Food safety is a critical requirement in modern nutrition. Traces of contaminants - from biological/environmental and/or anthropic origin - are always present in our dishes, potentially triggering adverse reactions (acute, chronic) in consumers. Exposition, diet, age and personal susceptibility are parameters involved in the risk correlated to the ingestion of food contaminants.
Among the contaminants classes, mycotoxins and food allergens represent a big challenge for the exposed consumers. The presence of mycotoxins in food can be related to the quality of the raw materials, but also strictly linked to the climate change. Masked mycotoxins open new requirements in food science and food technology. Beside mycotoxins, the presence of food allergens represents another key risk for sensitized consumers. More particularly, the detection of hidden allergens (or allergenic ingredients) in foods requires sensitive methods of analysis (direct or indirect analysis), also depending on the crucial role of the personalized response in sensitized people.
All these findings will be debated in these lectures, focusing on analytical and safety perspectives.
Prof. Chiara Dall'Asta (CHIM/10) currently serves as Associate Professor of Food Chemistry affiliated with Drug and Food Department (University of Parma), deeply working in collaboration with European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). She is working on mycotoxins since many years, with a deep expertise in analytical detection of mycotoxins, metabolomics and masked mycotoxins in food.
Prof. Patrizia Restani (CHIM/10) is Full Professor of Food Chemistry affiliated with University of Milan. She is working since many years in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (Rome) in the Technical Board for Food Allergies.
The main expertise of Prof. Restani is focused on protein food allergens and adverse reaction to foods, particularly focusing on the establishment of the threshold values for food allergens and the development of new analytical methods.
