Articles - Forewords

Affidia is now in its third year of activity. We started just a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world. One of the consequences of this global disaster was the cancellation of scientific conferences in 2020-2021. Even at the beginning of 2022, some conferences are still being cancelled, others are taking on hybrid forms, and the nu [...]

Why doing Precautionary Allergen Labelling right matters.   Let’s take a short walk through history. Back in 1985, the Codex Alimentarius published its ground-breaking labelling standard (FAO/WHO 1985) for the labelling of pre-packaged foods. It was meant to be a better, more harmonized way to inform consumers about the composition of th [...]

In the last 20 years, aflatoxin M1 has been found in milk at unprecedented levels in southern Europe on several occasions. Is it the result of climate change? What do experts think about the risk to consumers, both now and in the future? Is the best approach to move from an M1 limit to a “total aflatoxin metabolites” limit?   Intro [...]

How the EU regulatory context for food contact materials and articles (FCMs) may change on the way to a toxin-free environment.   This article provides an overview of the most significant Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) and Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy updates that may be included in new European Union (EU) Food Contact Material (FC [...]

A focus on cereals.   A review of the impact of climate change on chemical exposures affecting human health identified 8 contaminants as high risk of getting worse due to climate change, one of which was mycotoxins (Balbus et al. 2013). Guerin (2022) evaluated the risks and responsibilities of Directors of companies that supply food in relatio [...]

Initiatives and efforts to meet stricter mycotoxin regulations are helping the country overcome contamination challenges in its domestic and export markets.       Brazil is one of the largest food producers and exporters in the world. It is the fourth-largest grain producer and the second-largest grain exporter, accounting for about [...]

Meaningful reporting best practice linking customer, method developer, laboratory, and risk assessor to generate confidence and trust in allergen analysis.         Increased momentum on the risk assessment and risk management of food allergens suggests we may be on the cusp of real progress that will help consumers, food busines [...]

An overview of MYTOX-SOUTH® activities and their goal of strengthening global capacity to tackle the mycotoxin problem and its associated food safety and food security issues.     The majority of the world’s food crops are contaminated with mycotoxins that have dangerous human health effects and cause significant food loss. The [...]

Novel and fully integrated management strategies to reduce and control mycotoxins - EU project under grant agreement n°678012.      At the international trade level, mycotoxin presence in foodstuffs has serious economic and sustainability consequences with significant implications for food and feed safety and food security. The E [...]

The food chain, or at least most food sectors, has shown over the last two years an incredible resilience in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, with seemingly fewer outbreaks of foodborne illness despite operating difficulties due to labour shortages. Yet in the last three months, outbreaks in the United States (Cronobacter spp. in powdered infant [...]

This Special Issue gathers some of the mycotoxin papers we have published since 2020. I would like to highlight some milestones in the evolution of this food safety issue. The decision of the European Union to establish Maximum Limits is probably the most significant change in the history of mycotoxin regulation and risk management in the EU. The i [...]

Are regulatory limits a good compromise between public health and economic interests?     The EU undoubtedly has the strictest mycotoxin regulations in the world. The complex and supposedly well-structured system that enforces these regulations and guarantees the highest level of safety for EU citizens actually has some weak points and ev [...]

Affidia interviewed two of the principle players in testing inspection and certification of grain shipments to learn how real investigations are conducted and to understand the unmet challenges in this field.     Globalization has increased the international circulation of commodities. For some of these commodities, globalization has mean [...]

A survey to investigate topics including the technologies used, the number of analyses conducted, and the test kits’ certifications.     Rapid testing for grain Aflatoxin and deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination of grain depends on several factors, primary among them weather conditions in the pre-harvest period. In Europe, aflatoxin i [...]

Dietary supplements: how natural contaminants may turn botanical remedies into a Pandora’s box.       Food supplements: a growing market trend  According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA 2009), food supplements are “concentrated sources of nutrients or other substances with a nutritional or physiological e [...]