Re: Re: A Warm Cup of Ochratoxin?

[Guest guest]

Hate to tell you this but Chocalate is aspergillius based, like soy suace.

From: joseph salowitz <josephsalowitz@...>

Subject: [] Re: A Warm Cup of Ochratoxin?

Date: Monday, October 27, 2008, 5:14 AM

I put up a pot of water to boil, to make my morning instant coffee.

While I waited for it to come to a boil, I read the below posting, by

barb1283. I clicked on the first link to the U.N. Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO), and read the report. I noticed, at the bottom of

that report, a further link to the instruction booklet that the FAO

hopes that coffee growers and processors will read, to minimize the

amount of mold in my morning cup of coffee. As I was skimming through

that instruction manual, the water kettle began to whistle, from the

boiling water. I went into the kitchen, turned off the kettle, AND

MADE MYSELF A NICE CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE!

Thanks barb.

............. ......... ......... ......... ....

>

> Coffee is usually contaminated with Ochratoxin A, from aspergillus,

as well as wine and grape juice. All articles on Ochratoxin in food

mentioned coffee. A few mentioned coffe, wine and grape juice

though. Perhaps the concern over coffee is growing due to the

increased consumption of coffee?

>

> http://www.fao. org/ag/magazine/ 0607sp1.htm

>

> http://www.medicaln ewstoday. com/articles/ 14906.php

>

[Guest guest]

Where does it say that a large amount of US coffee is contaminated

with OTA? Clearly, OTA is a contaminant farmers and the food industry

have to be viglant about, and coffee is a crop that often has issues

with it, but its also my understanding that the US food supply is far

less contaminated than many other countries. Certainly, there are

issues, but I think it's inaccurate to imply that typically coffee is

contaminated with OTA.

That is also not what those documents Barb linked say. So why imply that it is?

[Guest guest]

Responsible US food distributors and farmers (although there are only a few

coffee producers in the US and they tend to produce extremely expensive,

high end coffee only) devote a LOT of energy to testing food for

mycotoxins..

In fact, there is a substantial business in the US testing food for

mycotoxins.. If we could get even a tiny fraction of those folks interested

in helping us improve the safety of homes it would be a BIG accomplishment.

I don't think it would be at all impossible. They want to help.

They know that these things DO happen, too.

Honestly, I think many of them would very much like to help us, but they

don't know where to begin.

The business angle is that this is a field they are not very familiar with.

They would need some help. Also, the economics of scale need to be brought

to bear on a number of technical issues to make them more affordable. That

also isn't really that out of the question, I don't think. Its not " rocket

science " (or even close). Its basically a problem of moving a lot of air and

capturing stuff out of it.

In particular, the sampling technologies that are affordable for use by most

of us would need to improve.

Anybody can operate a vacumn pump and a spore trap. That is why so many

people are hanging out shingles as " mold inspectors " . But spore traps are

not effective as a total solution for mold testing. Mold health issues and

the presence of spores are not the same thing. QPCR would be a far better

candidate for a single method used if only one method is used, but IMO, for

something this important, simply using one method is anadequate. Toxin

testing is something we need to be able to do much more and much more

affordably.

Disturbingly, the most significant mycotoxins from a public health

standpoint are extremely powerful- they effect health at levels well below

our current ability to detect them on surfaces, for example.

So, that means that in order for mycotoxin testing to be able to offer the

holy grail of a go / no go test for buildings, a huge amount of air needs to

be sampled and the mycotoxin in it needs to be captured in something, (I

would say the most viable option is a buffered solution) for analysis. Thats

what it would take to be able to concentrate it to the point where it was

able to be analyzed meaningfully.

Thats a technology that is still not available to most (almost all!) of the

people who need it. The cost needs to come down and the hardware needed to

do it needs to shrink in both size and cost.

[Guest guest]

Barb, I don't know if what you are saying is true or not, but its scary as

hell if it is true.

For that reason, I would like to see some references if you have them.

(I'm assuming that's what you mean when you say " my research " , right?)

Honestly, I would be very surprised if more than a tiny percentage of coffee

say, randomly bought in US supermarkets, was found to be contaminated with

OTA.

If it is, this would be a significant health issue..because OTA is a

neurotoxin, one that has

the potential to cause major problems like parkinsonism.

If you have evidence that there is, then it would stand to reason that this

was a significant

health issue on a lot of different levels.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16844142

* *J Neurol Sci.

<javascript:AL_get(this,%20'jour',%20'J%20Neurol%20Sci.');>2006 Nov

1;249(1):68-75. Epub 2006 Jul 14.[image:

Click here to

read]<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?PrId=3048 & itool=Abstrac\

tPlus-def & uid=16844142 & db=pubmed & url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii\

/S0022-510X%2806%2900290-5>

Links <javascript:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu16844142);>

Can low level exposure to ochratoxin-A cause parkinsonism? *Sava

V*<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed & Cmd=Search & Term=%22Sava%20\

V%22%5BAuthor%5D & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_D\

iscoveryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus>,

*Reunova

O*<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed & Cmd=Search & Term=%22Reunova\

%20O%22%5BAuthor%5D & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubme\

d_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus>,

*Velasquez

A*<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed & Cmd=Search & Term=%22Velasqu\

ez%20A%22%5BAuthor%5D & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pub\

med_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus>,

*-Ramos

J*<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed & Cmd=Search & Term=%22\

-Ramos%20J%22%5BAuthor%5D & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel\

..Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus>

..

University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites with pharmacological activities that have

been utilized in the production of antibiotics, growth promoters, and other

classes of drugs. Some mycotoxins have been developed as biological and

chemical warfare agents. Bombs and ballistic missiles loaded with aflatoxin

were stockpiled and may have been deployed by Iraq during the first Gulf

War. In light of the excess incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

in veterans from Operation Desert Storm, the potential for delayed

neurotoxic effects of low doses of mycotoxins should not be overlooked.

Ochratoxin-A (OTA) is a common mycotoxin with complex mechanisms of action,

similar to that of the aflatoxins. Acute administration of OTA at non-lethal

doses (10% of the LD(50)) have been shown to increase oxidative DNA damage

in brain up to 72 h, with peak effects noted at 24 h in midbrain (MB),

caudate/putamen (CP) and hippocampus (HP). Levels of dopamine (DA) and its

metabolites in the striatum (e.g., CP) were shown to be decreased in a

dose-dependent manner. The present study focused on the effects of chronic

low dose OTA exposure on regional brain oxidative stress and striatal DA

metabolism. Continuous administration of low doses of OTA with implanted

subcutaneous Alzet minipumps caused a small but significant decrease in

striatal DA levels and an upregulation of anti-oxidative systems and DNA

repair. It is possible that low dose exposure to OTA will result in an

earlier onset of parkinsonism when normal age-dependent decline in striatal

DA levels are superimposed on the mycotoxin-induced lesion.

PMID: 16844142 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 5:28 PM, barb1283 <barb1283@...> wrote:

> ...but actually Live, my research DOES seem to say that most, if not

> all, coffee is contaminated with ochratoxin. It's just a matter

> of 'how much' is in it. There are efforts to figure out a way to

> manage production to keep level low and try to figure out what level of

> ochratoxin could safely be allowed.

> Sorry..I thought you said that 'I said that US was singled out' in

> article and it was not.

>

>

> >

> > Certainly, there are

> > issues, but I think it's inaccurate to imply that typically coffee is

> > contaminated with OTA.

> >

> > That is also not what those documents Barb linked say. So why imply

> that it is?

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Unfortunately, I can't drink coffee, I have not been able to for a very long

time.

I can't even drink tea.

I have reflux. Caffeine and reflux don't mix.