2010 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 107-112
To date, there have been many activities for risk assessment and risk management on mycotoxins by international organizations such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) since 80’s. In Japan, whereas the regulation for aflatoxin B1 limit in all foods was established at 1971, there were few official activities on mycotoxins for the next 30 years. The situation on mycotoxins in Japan, however, has been changing drastically responding to the 56th JECFA meeting at 2001 which evaluated the risks of several important mycotoxins. From 2001, the research group on mycotoxins was organized under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan (MHLW), and surveillance for several mycotoxins has been conducted. As a result, regulatory limit for deoxynivalenol (provisional) and patulin were established and total aflatoxins regulation in peanuts ant tree nuts will be established at 2010. In 2006, the consultation for evaluation of methods for mycotoxin analysis was also organized under the MHLW, and has already validated two methods, simultaneous analysis for deoxynivalenol and nivalenol in wheat and analysis of total aflatoxins in peanuts and tree nuts. In this paper, recent activities on mycotoxins under the MHLW will be mainly presented, and activities on mycotoxins of the Food Safety Commission in Japan and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will be also presented briefly.
