Groh Ksenia J, Muncke Jane
Food Packaging Forum Foundation, Staffelstrasse 8, CH-8045, Zürich, Switzerland.
Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2017 Sep;16(5):1123-1150. doi: 10.1111/1541-4337.12280. Epub 2017 Jul 14.
Currently, toxicological testing of food contact materials (FCMs) is focused on single substances and their genotoxicity. However, people are exposed to mixtures of chemicals migrating from food contact articles (FCAs) into food, and toxic effects other than genotoxic damage may also be relevant. Since FCMs can be made of more than 8 thousand substances, assessing them one-by-one is very resource-consuming. Moreover, finished FCAs usually contain non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). NIAS toxicity can only be tested if a substance's chemical identity is known and if it is available as a pure chemical. Often, this is not the case. Nonetheless, regulations require safety assessments for all substances migrating from FCAs, including NIAS, hence new approaches to meet this legal obligation are needed. Testing the overall migrate or extract from an FCM/FCA is an option. Ideally, such an assessment would be performed by means of in vitro bioassays, as they are rapid and cost-effective. Here, we review the studies using in vitro bioassays to test toxicity of FCMs/FCAs. Three main categories of in vitro assays that have been applied include assays for cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and endocrine disruption potential. In addition, we reviewed studies with small multicellular animal-based bioassays. Our overview shows that in vitro testing of FCMs is in principle feasible. We discuss future research needs and FCM-specific challenges. Sample preparation procedures need to be optimized and standardized. Further, the array of in vitro tests should be expanded to include those of highest relevance for the most prevalent human diseases of concern.
目前，食品接触材料（FCM）的毒理学测试主要集中在单一物质及其遗传毒性上。然而，人们会接触到从食品接触制品（FCA）迁移到食品中的化学物质混合物，除了遗传毒性损害之外的其他毒性作用也可能具有相关性。由于FCM可以由八千多种物质制成，逐一评估它们非常耗费资源。此外，成品FCA通常含有非故意添加物质（NIAS）。只有在物质的化学特性已知且有纯化学物质可用时，才能测试NIAS的毒性。但情况往往并非如此。尽管如此，法规要求对从FCA迁移出的所有物质（包括NIAS）进行安全评估，因此需要新的方法来履行这一法律义务。测试FCM/FCA的总体迁移物或提取物是一种选择。理想情况下，这种评估将通过体外生物测定来进行，因为它们快速且具有成本效益。在此，我们回顾了使用体外生物测定来测试FCM/FCA毒性的研究。已应用的体外测定主要有三大类，包括细胞毒性测定、遗传毒性测定和内分泌干扰潜力测定。此外，我们还回顾了基于小型多细胞动物的生物测定研究。我们的综述表明，FCM的体外测试原则上是可行的。我们讨论了未来的研究需求和FCM特有的挑战。样品制备程序需要优化和标准化。此外，体外测试的范围应扩大，以包括与最普遍关注的人类疾病相关性最高的测试。
