Browsing by Author "Torres, Duarte"
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- Are Data from Mycotoxins’ Urinary Biomarkers and Food Surveys Linked? A Review Underneath Risk AssessmentPublication . Martins, Carla; Assunção, Ricardo; Nunes, Carla; Torres, Duarte; Alvito, PaulaMycotoxins are natural chemical contaminants of foods, posing several health risks to humans. Biomarkers-driven research has been used as a tool for a more accurate characterization of the internal exposure. Whether certain food items are predictors of exposure to mycotoxins constitutes an important aspect for the risk assessment of mycotoxins. Comprehensive human biomonitoring studies linked with food surveys and health studies are of utmost importance, contributing to identify the determinants of exposure. Associations between mycotoxins’ urinary biomarkers and consumption of some food items were reported. This review is focused on the link between mycotoxins’ urinary biomarkers and food consumption
- Avaliação de risco-benefício associado à alimentação: um instrumento para uma melhor política alimentar e de saúde na EuropaPublication . Brazão, Roberto; Fernandes, Paulo; Martins, Carla; Nabais, Pedro; Torres, Duarte; Pires, Sara; Thomsen, S.; Jakobsen, L.; Géraldine, B.; Membré, J.; Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, PaulaO RiskBenefit4EU (GP/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01 - GA02) é um projeto europeu, financiado pela EFSA, que visa fortalecer a capacidade de avaliação de risco-benefício associado à alimentação na União Europeia (UE), aplicando uma abordagem holística. Este projeto resulta de uma parceria entre instituições de investigação & desenvolvimento e académicas, das áreas da saúde, alimentação e nutrição, e autoridades nacionais de segurança alimentar, de Portugal (país coordenador), Dinamarca e França.
- Bioacessibilidade de Folatos em Quinoa: Efeito do ProcessamentoPublication . Motta, Carla; Assunção, Ricardo; Martins, Carla; Delgado, Inês; Coelho, Inês; Santos, Mariana; Torres, Duarte; Alvito, Paula; Castanheira, IsabelA quinoa é uma semente que pode ser usada e consumida como um cereal. Destaca-se pela elevada qualidade proteica, elevado teor em vitaminas e minerais e ausência de glúten 1. O folato ou vitamina B9 é um termo genérico que engloba as formas naturais e sintéticas, ácido fólico, tetrahidrofolato, 5-metil-tetrahidrofolato, 10-formil-tetrahidrofolato e 5-formil-tetrahidrofolato. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a bioacessibilidade das diferentes formas de folatos em quinoa crua, cozida, cozida a vapor e maltada. Para a identificação e determinação dos folatos foi utilizado um cromatógrafo líquido acoplado a um espectrómetro de massas (UPLC-MS/MS). A digestão das amostras foi realizada, utilizando um protocolo de digestão estático, harmonizado "in vitro" 2. Os processos de cozedura aumentam a bioacessibilidade dos folatos, com valores de bioacessibilidade perto dos 100% para o 5-metil-tetrahidrofolato, verificando-se igualmente um aumento significativo da bioacessibilidade do 10-metil-tetrahidrofolato. Durante a maltagem a bioacessibilidade dos folatos também aumenta, com valores semelhantes aos da cozedura. O conhecimento da bioacessibilidade deste alimento, relacionada com o processamento culinário é uma indicação muito útil para cálculo da composição nutricional das dietas. A quinoa processada constitui uma fonte importante de folatos, e uma excelente alternativa nutricional, para a população em geral.
- Breakfast Cereals Intended for Children: Opportunities for Reformulation and Potential Impact on Nutrient IntakePublication . Santos, Mariana; Matias, Filipa; Rito, Ana Isabel; Castanheira, Isabel; Torres, Duarte; Loureiro, Isabel; Assunção, RicardoReady-to-eat cereals (RTECs) have become a popular breakfast option claiming to provide important nutrients to children’s diets, despite being a source of excess sugar and, therefore, a health concern. Thus, food reformulation constitutes an important public health strategy that could benefit from inputs provided by nutrient profiling. This study aimed to assess the adequacy of the RTECs for children available in Portuguese supermarkets, applying three nutrient profile models (NPMs)—the nutrient profile model of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe (WHO-EURO), the profile of the private-sector EU Pledge (EU-Pledge), and the national model developed by the Directorate-General of Health (NPM-PT)—in order to explore the potential for reformulation of the RTECs identified as not adequate and evaluate the impact of RTECs’ reformulation on the nutritional quality of Portuguese children’s diets. In total, 78 RTECs intended for children were assessed and two scenarios—current (not considering reformulation) and alternative (considering reformulation to accomplish the nutrient profile requirements)—were considered to assess the impact of reformulation on nutritional quality. Across all RTECs, only 5.1% could be promoted to children according to the considered NPMs. The most common nutrients requiring reformulation were sugar, saturated fatty acids (SFA), salt, and dietary fiber. The scenarios of reformulation considered could reduce the RTECs average content of total sugars, SFA, and salt by 43%, 8.7%, and 1.1%, respectively, and dietary fiber intake could be increased by 34%. Thus, these results support policies to implement reformulation strategies for developing healthier food products to be promoted to children.
- Building capacity in risk-benefit assessment of foods: lessons learned from the RB4EU projectPublication . Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, Paula; Brazão, Roberto; Carmona, Paulo; Fernandes, Paulo; Jakobsen, Lea S.; Lopes, Carla; Martins, Carla; Membré, Jeanne-Marie; Monteiro, Sarogini; Nabais, Pedro; Thomsen, Sofie T.; Torres, Duarte; Viegas, Silvia; Pires, Sara; Boué, GeraldineBackground: Human diet may present both risks and benefits to consumers’ health. Risk-benefit assessment of foods (RBA) intends to estimate the overall health impact associated with exposure (or lack of exposure) to a particular food or food component. Scope and approach: “RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach” (RB4EU) is a project funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that integrates a multidisciplinary team from Portugal, Denmark and France. This project aims to strengthen the EU capacity to assess and integrate food risks and benefits regarding toxicology, microbiology and nutrition. One of the specific objectives of RB4EU was to build capacity in RBA among the recipient partners from Portugal. In order to achieve this objective, a capacity building strategy including theoretical and hands-on training and the development of a case-study were established. This paper aims to present the strategy used in the RB4EU project to build capacity within RBA, including the main training approaches and the lessons learned. Key findings and conclusions: The capacity-building program included three main activities: theoretical training, focusing on RBA concepts; hands-on training, applying the acquired concepts to a concrete case-study, using the methods and tools displayed; and scientific missions, intending to provide advanced training in specific domains of RBA. The developed strategy can be used in the future to build capacity within RBA.
- Building capacity in risk-benefit assessment of foods: lessons learned from the RB4EU ProjectPublication . Boué, Géraldine; Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, Paula; Brazão, R.; Carmona, Paulo; Carvalho, Catarina; Correia, D.; Fernandes, Paulo; Jakobsen, Lea; Lopes, Carla; Martins, Carla; Membré, Jeanne-Marie; Monteiro, Sarogini; Nabais, Pedro; Thomsen, Sofie; Torres, Duarte; Pires, SaraRisk-Benefit Assessment (RBA) of food, food ingredients and diets, has recently emerged to address multidisciplinary public health issues. RBA aims to assess in a global perspective potential risks and benefits related to microbiology, toxicology and nutrition; in order to evaluate different options and to support decision-making process. At this time, significant methodological progress have been made but only few research groups have experience in RBA. To promote knowledge transfer, the RiskBenefit4EU project was funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The objective of the presentation will be to introduce the strategy developed to capacitate a new team in RBA and to give an overview on lessons learned from this experience. The new team was comprised of experts in risk assessment in toxicology, microbiology or nutrition, epidemiology, dietary assessment or data analysis to answer to a specific multidisciplinary public health issue on cereal-based foods consumed by young children considering breakfast and infant cereals. Activities of the capacity building experience were designed by experienced researchers in RBA to transfer a harmonized methodology. Two weeks of face-to-face training were organized, one on theoretical concepts used in RBA and one on their application to the cereal case study. This experience has highlighted the necessity to build a common language within the team by harmonizing important concepts including hazard, health effect, adverse health effect, beneficial health effect, risk, benefit, health and health impact. It was also important that all participant learn basis of all area of expertise used in RBA. A harmonized RBA stepwise approach was introduced with key steps illustrated with examples of previous RBA performed. Finally, the RBA case study was initiated to design a shared protocol. The learning by doing process experienced under the RB4EU project enabled to create the first training in RBA. The strategy developed, with materials and method used, can now be re-used to capacitate other new teams in RBA and can be considered as a robust basis to build on.
- Burden of disease associated with dietary exposure to carcinogenic aflatoxins in Portugal using human biomonitoring approachPublication . Martins, Carla; Vidal, Arnau; De Boevre, M.; De Saeger, Sarah; Nunes, Carla; Torres, Duarte; Goios, A.; Lopes, Carla; Alvito, Paula; Assunção, RicardoHuman biomonitoring is an important tool to assess human exposure to chemicals, contributing to describe trends of exposure over time and to identify population groups that could be under risk. Aflatoxins are genotoxic and carcinogenic food contaminants causing hepatocellular carcinoma, the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. In Portugal, scarce data are available regarding exposure to aflatoxins and no previous study used human biomonitoring data to comprehensively characterize the associated burden of disease. 24 h urine and first-morning urine paired samples were collected by 94 participants and were analyzed by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the quantitative determination of aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2 and M1). Deterministic and probabilistic models were developed to assess the Portuguese exposure to aflatoxins and to estimate the health impact of this exposure, estimating the attributed Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Aflatoxins were detected in a maximum of 13% (AFB1), 16% (AFB2), 1% (AFG1), 2% (AFG2) and 19% (AFM1) of the urine samples. Data obtained through the probabilistic approach revealed an estimated mean probable daily intake of 13.43 ng/kg body weight per day resulting in 0.13 extra cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, corresponding to mean annual DALYs of 172.8 for the Portuguese population (10 291 027 inhabitants). The present study generated for the first time and within a human biomonitoring study, reliable and crucial data to characterize the burden associated to the exposure to aflatoxins of the Portuguese population. The obtained results constitute an imperative support to risk managers in the establishment of preventive policy measures that contribute to ensure public health protection.
- Caracterização do Perfil em Aminoácidos de Duas Variedades de Arroz PortuguêsPublication . Mota, Carla; Cabral, Margarida; Torres, Duarte; Santos, Mariana; Castanheira, IsabelSegundo o INE, entre 2010 e 2011 o consumo humano de arroz branqueado e semibranqueado em Portugal foi de 15,8 kg/capita/dia, o que representa o valor mais elevado da Europa [1]. Tendo este alimento um largo consumo, a avaliação do seu perfil em aminoácidos (AA) pode ser importante para definir a qualidade das proteínas existentes nas diferentes espécies, possibilitando aos produtores a escolha de sementes com maior qualidade nutricional. Este trabalho teve como objectivo quantificar as proteínas totais e dezassete AA existentes em quinze sementes de arroz polido cultivado entre 2009 e 2011, correspondentes às variedades mais consumidas em Portugal, Japónica (carolino) e Indica (agulha), cultivadas nas regiões do Ribatejo e Sado. A proteína total foi determinada pelo método de Kjeldahl e a quantificação dos diferentes AA foi efectuada num sistema de Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography UPLC® da Acquity™ (Waters), equipado com um detector de fotodiodos (DAD - photodiode array detection), com derivatização pré-coluna com 6-aminoquinolil-N-hidroxisuccinimidil carbamato [2], após hidrólise ácida das amostras em microondas. Da análise dos resultados salienta-se não haver diferença significativa entre variedades Japónica (6,42 ±0,5 g/100g) e Indica (7,0± 1,56 g/mg), relativamente ao teor de proteína total. Nas variedades estudadas, e de acordo a definição da WHO/FAO/UNU [3], a lisina foi o único AA limitante (Score <1). Nas amostras analisadas não foram observadas diferenças significativas entre o local de cultivo e ano de produção. Os resultados obtidos poderão ser agregados, possibilitando a inclusão de valores com maior representatividade nas Tabelas da Composição de Alimentos. [1] INE (2012) Balanços de aprovisionamento de Produtos Vegetais: Consumo humano de arroz branqueado e semibranqueado per capita (kg/ hab.) por Comprimento do grão; Anual - INE, Balanços de Aprovisionamento de Produtos Vegetais: http://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_indicadores&indOcorrCod=0000186&contexto=bd&selTab=tab2 (05.04.2012) [2] WATERS CORPORATION (2006) UPLC Amino Acid Analysis Application Solution – System Guide. [3] WHO/FAO/UNU (2007) Protein and Amino Acid Requirements in Human Nutrition (Vol. 935). Geneva: WHO Technical Report Series.
- Characterization of a Population Concerning Vitamins and Anemia BiomarkersPublication . Mota, Carla; Tavares, Nuno; Torres, Duarte; Santos, Mariana; Castanheira, Isabel; Matos, Ana SofiaFolate, vitamin B12, iron and hemoglobin are essential for metabolic functions. Deficiency of these can cause several known pathologies and, untreated, severe morbidity and death. The objective of this study is to characterize a population, concerning serum levels of folate, B12, iron and hemoglobin, as well as finding evidence of correlations between these parameters and illnesses, mainly cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological and anemia. The laboratorial data collected consists of blood analysis in patients, required by the patients’ doctors, and were retrieved in 2012. The total population consisted of 728 individuals, residing in Lisbon metropolitan area in Portugal. When coming in for examination, the patients were asked routine questions about their age, gender, county of residence, reason for examination and what medication or supplementation they were taking. The population consisted of 140 male patients and 588 female patients, aged from 2 to 95 years of age. There are 329 persons over 60 years old, these are considered elderly patients. Clinical data was submitted to multivariate analysis. The data was screened with Spearman correlation and Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance to study correlations and variability between groups. To characterize the population, we used cluster analysis with Ward’s linkage method. A positive correlation between iron with, ferritin and transferrin, and with hemoglobin was observed with the Spearman correlation. Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance showed significant differences between these biomarkers in persons aged 0-29, 30-59 and over 60 years old. Cluster analysis, evidence low folate levels for population in general, and hemoglobin levels below the reference values for 42.8% of study population. Iron and vitamin B12 were within the reference range for most of the population. Low levels of the parameters were registered mainly in cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological diseases and anemia patients.
- Consumo de alimentos à base de cereais pelas crianças portuguesas: uma avaliação de risco-benefícioPublication . Assunção, Ricardo; Boué, Géraldine; Alvito, Paula; Brazão, Roberto; Carmona, Paulo; Carvalho, Catarina; Correia, Daniela; Fernandes, Paulo; Lopes, Carla; Martins, Carla; Membré, Jeanne-Marie; Monteiro, Sarogini; Nabais, Pedro; Thomsen, Sofie T.; Torres, Duarte; Pires, Sara M.; Jakobsen, Lea S.De uma forma geral, o consumo de alimentos pode apresentar potenciais riscos e benefícios para os consumidores. Os alimentos à base de cereais, incluindo os cereais de pequeno-almoço e os cereais infantis, representam componentes importantes da dieta humana e estão entre os primeiros alimentos sólidos que são introduzidos na dieta. Estes alimentos constituem uma fonte importante de vários nutrientes, incluindo o sódio, fibras e açúcares livres, que podem estar associados a efeitos benéficos e adversos para a saúde. Simultaneamente, os alimentos à base de cereais podem também ser veículo de contaminantes químicos (por exemplo, micotoxinas) e microbiológicos (por exemplo, Bacillus cereus). As aflatoxinas, um grupo de micotoxinas que apresenta maior potencial tóxico, são frequentemente detetadas em cereais. No âmbito do projeto RiskBenefit4EU, o presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar os riscos e os benefícios associados ao consumo de alimentos à base de cereais pelas crianças portuguesas. Os riscos (teores de aflatoxinas e B. cereus, sódio e açúcares livres) e os benefícios (teor de fibra) associados ao consumo de cereais de pequeno-almoço (CPA) foram comparados com aqueles associados ao consumo de cereais infantis (CI). Os resultados obtidos revelaram que a mudança do consumo atual para os cenários alternativos considerados (em especial para o consumo de cereais de pequeno-almoço com características semelhantes ao “Melhor CPA”) poderia resultar num ganho de anos de vida saudável.