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Toxicants and Processing contaminants
Team role
The role of the Team is to obtain, manage and deliver research contracts on food processing contaminants, natural toxicants, food additives and the authenticity of oils and fats.
Science themes:
Food Processing Contaminants
The Team has a leading international role in food processing contaminant research and analysis. It has carried out many research projects for the UK Food Standards Agency, the EU (including the FP6 project HEATOX), and commercial customers on the formation of toxic food processing contaminants including N-nitrosamines, ethyl carbamate, chloropropanols, acrylamide, and furan.
The Team devised the currently used official method for the determination of 3-monochlorochloropropanediol (3-MCPD).
Food Additives and Components
The Team's expertise in food additives includes methods development for and analysis of synthetic and natural food additives including colours, preservatives, emulsifiers and flavours, vitamins and illegal additives. The team has significant expertise in the development of analytical methods for biomarkers of exposure to additives, nutrients and contaminants, and in their application to risk assessment. The team is currently expanding into the development of analytical methods for and databases of natural bioactive compounds.
Natural Toxicants - Mycotoxins
The Team has considerable expertise in the analysis of mycotoxins in food, feed and food crops and is the UK National Reference laboratory for mycotoxins. The toxins studied include trichothecenes, ochratoxin, aflatoxins, and ergot alkaloids. It has carried out many research projects and surveillance exercises for the UK Food Standards Agency, The EU, and commercial customers. The Team has regularly organised and run training courses in mycotoxin analysis.
Natural Toxicants - Plant toxins
In this newly topical area the Team is engaged in analyses of various plant toxins including pyrrolizidine alkaloids, tropane alkaloids, and toxins from rhododendron.
Natural Toxicants - Marine biotoxins
The team has played a significant role in advising the FSA, UK-NRL and EU-CRL on analytical methodologies, and has been involved in the EFSA working group on marine biotoxins.
Authenticity of Oils and Fats
The Team has a long history of involvement in analyses of oils and fats authenticity in particular of speciality oils, olive oil and cocoa butter. It has carried out surveys for the Food Standards Agency, and research into analytical methods for the Agency and the EU, most recently in the Framework 6 MAC-OILS project.