Assessment of Pre-Pregnancy Dietary Intake with a Food Frequency Questionnaire in Alberta Women

Purpose: Pre-pregnancy is an under-examined and potentially important time to optimize dietary intake to support fetal growth and development as well as maternal health. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which dietary intake reported by non-pregnant women is similar to pre-pregnancy dietary intake reported by pregnant women using the same assessment tool. Methods: The self-administered, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was adapted from the Canadian version of the Diet History Questionnaire, originally developed by the National Cancer Institute in the United States. Pregnant women (n = 98) completed the FFQ which assessed dietary intake for the year prior to pregnancy. Non-pregnant women (n = 103) completed the same FFQ which assessed dietary intake for the previous year. Energy, macronutrients, and key micronutrients: long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, folate, vitamin B₆, vitamin B₁₂, calcium, vitamin D and iron were examined. Results: Dietary intake between groups; reported with the FFQ; was similar except for saturated fat; trans fat; calcium; and alcohol. Pregnant women reported significantly higher intakes of saturated fat; trans fat; and calcium and lower intake of alcohol in the year prior to pregnancy compared to non-pregnant women who reported intake in the previous year. Conclusions: Despite limitations; a FFQ may be used to assist with retrospective assessment of pre-pregnancy dietary intake.     

The Reliability and Validity of the Perceived Dietary Adherence Questionnaire for People with Type 2 Diabetes

Nutrition therapy is essential for diabetes treatment, and assessment of dietary intake can be time consuming. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure diabetic patients’ adherence to Canadian diabetes nutrition recommendations. Specific information derived from three, repeated 24-h dietary recalls of 64 type 2 diabetic patients, aged 59.2 ± 9.7 years, was correlated with a total score and individual items of the Perceived Dietary Adherence Questionnaire (PDAQ). Test-retest reliability was completed by 27 type 2 diabetic patients, aged 62.8 ± 8.4 years. The correlation coefficients for PDAQ items versus 24-h recalls ranged from 0.46 to 0.11. The intra-class correlation (0.78) was acceptable, indicating good reliability. The results suggest that PDAQ is a valid and reliable measure of diabetes nutrition recommendations. Because it is quick to administer and score, it may be useful as a screening tool in research and as a clinical tool to monitor dietary adherence.     

Hazard identification of cis/trans-zearalenone through the looking-glass

Among the food-related health issues, the presence of contaminants has a prominent role, due to the wide range of exogenous compounds that can occur in food commodities and to their large differences in structure and biological activity. A comprehensive assessment of the related risk is thus actually demanding in terms of time and facilities involved. In this context, the use of computational strategies can be an effective choice for supporting the hazard identification procedure at the early stage. In this work, we focused on the food contaminant zearalenone by comparing the trans and cis isomers, respectively the well-known mycoestrogen and its still largely understudied isomer. We estimated the possible effects exerted by human metabolism on the xenoestrogenicity of cis-ZEN by using a validated in silico strategy based on docking simulations and rescoring procedures. Similarly, the exploitation of the most promising enzymatic detoxifying routes designed for trans-ZEN – which relies on the enzyme lactono hydrolase from Clonostachys rosea – has been assessed for the cis-isomer as well. Our results showed that both isomers can act as functional analogues with respect to xenoestrogenic activity, and several cis-ZEN metabolites with high biological potential have been identified. On the contrary, in spite of the high degree of structural analogy, the cis isomer showed a pattern of interaction with the degrading enzyme in stark contrast with that observed for trans-ZEN. For these reasons, the outcomes presented herein strongly support the inclusion of cis-ZEN in further studies of occurrence, metabolism and bioactivity assessment, and suggest the need for a dedicated handling for the cis isomer in risk assessment studies.     

The total margin of exposure of ethanol and acetaldehyde for heavy drinkers consuming cider or vodka

Heavy drinkers in Scotland may consume 1600 g ethanol per week. Due to its low price, cider may be preferred over other beverages. Anecdotal evidence has linked cider to specific health hazards beyond other alcoholic beverages. To examine this hypothesis, nine apple and pear cider samples were chemically analysed for constituents and contaminants. None of the products exceeded regulatory or toxicological thresholds, but the regular occurrence of acetaldehyde in cider was detected. To provide a quantitative risk assessment, two collectives of exclusive drinkers of cider and vodka were compared and the intake of acetaldehyde was estimated using probabilistic Monte–Carlo type analysis. The cider consumers were found to ingest more than 200-times the amount of acetaldehyde consumed by vodka consumers. The margins of exposure (MOE) of acetaldehyde were 224 for the cider and over 220,000 for vodka consumers. However, if the effects of ethanol were considered in a cumulative assessment of the combined MOE, the effect of acetaldehyde was minor and the combined MOE for both groups was 0.3. We suggest that alcohol policy priority should be given on reducing ethanol intake by measures such as minimum pricing, rather than to focus on acetaldehyde.     

Food safety assessment of an antifungal protein from Moringa oleifera seeds in an agricultural biotechnology perspective

Mo-CBP₃ is an antifungal protein produced by Moringa oleifera which has been investigated as potential candidate for developing transgenic crops. Before the use of novel proteins, food safety tests must be conducted. This work represents an early food safety assessment of Mo-CBP₃, using the two-tiered approach proposed by ILSI. The history of safe use, mode of action and results for amino acid sequence homology using the full-length and short contiguous amino acids sequences indicate low risk associated to this protein. Mo-CBP₃ isoforms presented a reasonable number of alignments (>35% identity) with allergens in a window of 80 amino acids. This protein was resistant to pepsin degradation up to 2 h, but it was susceptible to digestion using pancreatin. Many positive attributes were presented for Mo-CBP₃. However, this protein showed high sequence homology with allergens and resistance to pepsin digestion that indicates that further hypothesis-based testing on its potential allergenicity must be done. Additionally, animal toxicity evaluations (e.g. acute and repeated dose oral exposure assays) must be performed to meet the mandatory requirements of several regulatory agencies. Finally, the approach adopted here exemplified the importance of performing an early risk assessment of candidate proteins for use in plant transformation programs.     

Principles for identification of High Potency Category Chemicals for which the Dermal Sensitisation Threshold (DST) approach should not be applied

An essential step in ensuring the toxicological safety of chemicals used in consumer products is the evaluation of their skin sensitising potential. The sensitising potency, coupled with information on exposure levels, can be used in a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) to determine an acceptable level of a given chemical in a given product. Where consumer skin exposure is low, a risk assessment can be conducted using the Dermal Sensitisation Threshold (DST) approach, avoiding the need to determine potency experimentally. Since skin sensitisation involves chemical reaction with skin proteins, the first step in the DST approach is to assess, on the basis of the chemical structure, whether the chemical is expected to be reactive or not. Our accompanying publication describes the probabilistic derivation of a DST of 64 μg/cm² for chemicals assessed as reactive. This would protect against 95% of chemicals assessed as reactive, but the remaining 5% would include chemicals with very high potency. Here we discuss the chemical properties and structural features of high potency sensitisers, and derive an approach whereby they can be identified and consequently excluded from application of the DST.     

Extension of the Dermal Sensitisation Threshold (DST) approach to incorporate chemicals classified as reactive

The evaluation of chemicals for their skin sensitising potential is an essential step in ensuring the safety of ingredients in consumer products. Similar to the Threshold of Toxicological Concern, the Dermal Sensitisation Threshold (DST) has been demonstrated to provide effective risk assessments for skin sensitisation in cases where human exposure is low. The DST was originally developed based on a Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA) dataset and applied to chemicals that were not considered to be directly reactive to skin proteins, and unlikely to initiate the first mechanistic steps leading to the induction of sensitisation. Here we have extended the DST concept to protein reactive chemicals. A probabilistic assessment of the original DST dataset was conducted and a threshold of 64 μg/cm² was derived. In our accompanying publication, a set of structural chemistry based rules was developed to proactively identify highly reactive and potentially highly potent materials which should be excluded from the DST approach. The DST and rule set were benchmarked against a test set of chemicals with LLNA/human data. It is concluded that by combining the reactive DST with knowledge of chemistry a threshold can be established below which there is no appreciable risk of sensitisation for protein-reactive chemicals.     

Safety assessment for octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)-propionate (CAS Reg. No. 2082-79-3) from use in food contact applications

Octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate (CAS Reg. No. 2082-79-3), currently marketed as Irganox 1076 (I-76), is a sterically hindered phenolic antioxidant used in a variety of organic substrates, including those used in the manufacture of food contact articles. In 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Office of Food Additive Safety (OFAS), initiated a post-market re-evaluation of the food contact applications of I-76. This project aimed to ensure that current dietary exposures from the use of I-76 in food contact articles are accurately captured and the safety assessment considered all relevant and available toxicological information. To accomplish these aims, the USFDA reviewed the available toxicological studies and chemistry information on food contact applications of I-76. Based on this in-depth analysis, a NOAEL of 64 mg/kg-bw/d (female rats) from a chronic rat study and a cumulative estimated dietary intake (CEDI) of 4.5 mg/p/d, was used to calculate a margin of exposure (MOE) of ∼850. We concluded that the previous and current exposure levels provide an adequate margin of safety (MOS) and remain protective of human health for the regulated uses.