Cataloging the Mycotoxins in Plant-Based “Meats” and “Milk”
Do soy-sausages and almond milk pose a mycotoxin health risk? We asked Professor Chiara Dall’Asta.
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Substitute meat. Substitute milk. Substitute yogurt. These days, there are few animal-derived foods left that don’t have a dozen ersatz copycats of their own, jostling for sales on the supermarket shelves.
The rapid rise of analog animal products has left many food scientists scrambling to keep up. Because, while there’s little new to learn about actual sausages and full-fat milk, there’s plenty of data left to collect from (the relatively under-researched) soy sausages and almond milk. For instance, what are the typical levels of mycotoxins found in such products?
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by molds and other fungal species that grow on food crops. If untreated and undetected, some of these toxins can find their way into plant-based foods, as well as foods derived from animals fed on affected crops.
To learn more about what levels of mycotoxins are found in plant-based analogs, Technology Networks caught up with one of the leading researchers in the emerging field: Chiara Dall’Asta, a professor of food chemistry at the University of Parma, Italy, who will present some of her recent findings at RAFA 2024, the 11th international symposium on recent advances in food analysis.
Can you provide an overview of your current research?
Chiara Dall’Asta, PhD (CD):
For a couple of years we [have been] quite interested in this big trend of plant-based food. In the UK, US, Europe – all over the world – supermarkets are getting packed with plant-based meat and milk. That’s fantastic, but, on the other side, our current regulation – in Europe and pretty much the world – is based on consumption data, which is quite outdated. Our diets change very quickly, but the collection of consumption data doesn’t follow with the same speed. When we look at our consumption data, we just look at data from 5-10 years ago; this data doesn’t capture the current consumption; plant-based meat and milk analogs are not present.
Raw material, the ingredients used to produce plant-based meat and milk, can be contaminated by mycotoxins. That’s normal. Beans, soy and even oats can be contaminated by mycotoxins. So, the idea from the basis of my work was, ‘Let’s see if we have a mycotoxin issue in these products, and let’s see if this contamination can change our overall exposure to this mycotoxin.’ Basically, is the current regulation still good, or do we have to work around the regulation? That doesn't mean that we must blame plant-based food. It means that we must cover them with a proper regulation.
LBM:
So, rather than actual plant-derived ingredients, you’re filling in the data for these new meat and milk analogs?
CD:
LBM:
CD:
At the moment, we have covered 300 samples from Europe. We have quite a good representation of the Italian market and the UK market, which are different, of course. We are in the process of closing some data from Greece. It would be great to include samples from the USA because that market is really different. We run mass spectrometry analysis with a multi-residual, multi-toxin method. This enables us to capture something like 40 different compounds in the same run.
What I can tell you is that we have mycotoxins present but at not a high level – it’s not worrisome. But, still, they are present in 89% of the samples we have analyzed. Meat analogs are more problematic compared to milk because soy is quite [easily] contaminated. It’s a matrix, a raw material crop that can support the presence of mycotoxins. But still, the levels are acceptable.
We made a small, game-like scenario – we tried to see what would happen if tomorrow we stopped eating meat and just replaced all our meat with this kind of product. That’s not the real situation, of course, but let’s try to imagine that we just stop eating meat and start eating only these analog burgers and so on. In that case, we will be overexposed. So, if we want to go towards this transition to plant-based ingredients, either we implement a regulation that considers these kinds of products, or we must take care of the quality of our ingredients. For milk, the situation is probably better because the [mycotoxin] levels are very, very low.
The wrong message is not to [buy and eat] plant-based foods. It is healthy and a good choice for the planet. But we need to collect data, and if the scenario is confirmed, advocate for correct or proper regulation.
LBM:
CD:
Very good control of raw material. We are at the very beginning of the research, so we don't have the full data, but the feeling is premium material will probably go to direct consumption, and lower-quality material will enter the transformation chain. This is not okay. First of all, consider high-quality material and then take care of all the single steps along the chain.
We could also collaborate with researchers, to try to find the correct process to decrease the level of mycotoxin, for example, by cleaning or sorting the raw material correctly. That’s something that the scientific community can do and can help companies in this direction.
LBM:
Does RAFA help facilitate those kinds of collaborations?
CD:
I’m a super RAFA supporter. This year, I will be there with 12 of my students, PhD and postdocs. I stress that they attend because I think this kind of conference is key for collaboration and networking, exchanging information and data, and putting together technologies and methodologies. After all, we can't do everything alone today. Science is very complicated. We need to work together.
