George Boskou
Dep. Nutrition-Dietetics, Harokopio University,
Athens, Greece

Abstract

The purpose of this column is to discuss emerging issues on food safety. Therefore, there will be a multidisciplinary approach on food safety in order to have a point of view from different angles. The topics discussed will concern emerging food hazards, developments in food safety management, news about the enforcement of food safety legislation and so on.

Thermally processed foods and refined oils are the most significant sources of MCPD. It is related to either hydrolysed vegetable proteins (HVP) in food or to the heat-induced formation from the triglycerides under acid conditions. MCPD stands for monochloroprapanediol (3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol or 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol). This is a typical hazard that appeared in foods on the effort to make better food products, an outcome of advanced food technology.

The formation of MCPD in HVP, produced by hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of protein sources such as soybean meal, is known since late 1970’s (1). Hydrochloric acid can react with residual glycerol and lipids to yield a range of chloropropanols. The most common formation is the one of 3-MCPD, together with lesser amounts of 2-MCPD, 1,3-DCP, 2,3-DCP and plain chloroprapanols (2).

The EU Scientific Committee for Food in 1997 suggested that MCPD should be regarded as a genotoxic carcinogen. However, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives in 2001 concluded that the mutagenic activity observed in vitro was not expressed in vivo. Therefore the EU Scientific Committee on Food in 2001 re ...