Abstract
The health burden of foodborne mycotoxins is considerable, but particularly for children due to their lower detoxification capacity, rapid growth and high intake of food in proportion to their weight. Through a Total Dietary Study approach, the objective was to estimate the dietary exposure and health risk caused by mycotoxins for children under 5 years living in the Lao Cai province in northern Vietnam. A total of 40 composite food samples representing 1008 individual food samples were processed and analyzed by ELISA for aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A and fumonisins. Results showed that dietary exposure to aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A and total fumonisins were 118.7 ng/kgbw/day, 52.6 ng/kg bw/day and 1250.0 ng/kg bw/day, respectively. Using a prevalence of hepatitis of 1%, the risk of liver cancer related to exposure of aflatoxin B1 was 12.1 cases/100,000 individual/year. Age-adjusted margin of exposure (MOE) of renal cancer associated with ochratoxin A was 127, while MOE of liver cancer associated with fumonisins was 542. Antropometric data show that 50.4% (60/119) of children were stunted, i.e. height/length for age z-scores (HAZ) below –2, and 3.4% (4/119) of children were classified as wasted, i.e. weight for height z-scores (WHZ) below –2. A significant negative relationship between dietary exposure to individual or mixture of mycotoxins and growth of children was observed indicating that the high mycotoxin intake contributed to stunning in the children studied.
Highlights
Risk assessments showed a high risk for liver cancer due to the consumption of aflatoxin B1 contaminated foods and high exposure to mycotoxins was associated with impaired child growth when adjusted for age, gender and dietary intake
Children are especially vulnerable to foodborne hazards due to their higher dietary exposure per kg body weight and differences in physiology compared to adults
Using the total dietary study (TDS) approach, this study aimed at estimating the dietary exposure to aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A and total fumonisins and the associated health risks among children younger than five years old in Lao Cai province, Vietnam
Summary
Children are especially vulnerable to foodborne hazards due to their higher dietary exposure per kg body weight and differences in physiology compared to adults. The IARC has reported fumonisins as Group 2B as “Possible carcinogenic to humans” [5,7], based on evidence showing that fumonisins act as a promoter of liver and kidney tumors in rodents. Ochratoxin A has been evaluated to be carcinogenic in the kidney of some animal species, in addition to causing numerous other specific toxic effects, such as hepatotoxicity, teratogenicity and immune-suppressivity, in different animals [8,9,10]. Ochratoxin A is classified into Group 2B as possibly carcinogenic to humans by the IARC [11]
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