Remediation Process for Aflatoxin Contaminated Foods

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Aflatoxins are carcinogenic compounds that are produced by Aspergillus molds on diverse agricultural commodities and affect up to 25 percent of the world's food crops. Due to a lack of practical methods to remove and destroy these compounds in food and feed, crops and raw commodities that are contaminated with aflatoxins are most often destroyed or blended with less toxic food and feed material. Exposure of human and animal populations to aflatoxin on a global scale is significant and managed primarily by regulatory survey of contamination levels. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established action levels of 20 ppb for aflatoxin present in food and 0.5 ppb for aflatoxin M1 (a toxic bovine metabolite) in milk. These limits have been established by the FDA to minimize exposure, not eliminate exposure, to these carcinogens. Despite these control measures, there remains an ongoing need for development of an economically and industrially relevant process for detoxifying aflatoxin-contaminated agricultural products intended for human and animal consumption. Whole grain remediation methods, such as oxidation using gas phase ozone or ammoniation, create undesirable taste and odor residues on the final product by impacting the final product chemically. One alternative would be a two-stage process of removal and destruction of the compound through extraction followed by oxidation. Hexane is used globally as the preferred vegetable oil extraction solvent for processing of cottonseed, corn, and peanuts. The extraction efficiency, cost, and availability of petroleum based solvents are the primary factors that commercial hexane has been chosen to extract edible oil from oil bearing materials since the 1940's. However, the main component of hexane, n-hexane, is now regulated as a Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) in the United States and is causing a significant economic impedance to the oilseed processing industry. Acetone has recently been shown to be a technically viable alternative to hexane for vegetable oil extraction because it is less toxic, not a HAP, and requires minimal infrastructure change to existing oil extraction plants, making it an attractive alternative for the oilseed industry in the US and abroad. The Phase I research study determined the feasibility and economics of extracting aflatoxins in corn using a cost competitive and environmentally benign acetone process. This approach demonstrated a 90% reduction of high concentrations of aflatoxin in naturally contaminated corn which was harvested in 2005 in the US. The Phase II study will focus on further isolation of aflatoxin into the soapstock fraction generated in vegetable oil manufacturing, where it can be destroyed using a skid-mounted chemical detoxification device. Phase II will also include a detailed analytical, in vitro and in vivo verification of this detoxification strategy, scale-up to a one ton (2,000 lbs) per 8-hour day process to validate economic viability, test the oxidation prototype in a industrial pilot plant, and generate decontaminated defatted meal and oil for validation in poultry. Aflatoxins are naturally occurring carcinogens that, despite regulation in diverse foods and feedstuffs, remain a health hazard to humans and animals both in the US and worldwide. There are no practical methods to isolate and destroy these toxins in contaminated raw agricultural commodities, forcing food producers and processors to choose between blending with available clean commodities or destroying the contaminated grains or oilseeds. The proposed innovation utilizes a new two-stage process integrated within the existing global industrial infrastructure in oilseed extraction to decontaminate commodities, allowing for safe, market- competitive food fractions and reduced cancer risk.