Key Outcomes of the 4th International Congress on Mineral Oil Contaminants in Food 

On June 5-6th 2023, Mérieux NutriSciences, together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fettwissenschaft e.V., hosted the 4th International Congress on Mineral Oil (MOSH/MOAH) in Food. More than 220 manufacturers participated in the congress both as participants and speakers to discuss challenges around Mineral oils, including toxicology, analytics, risk management and mitigation.

MOSH/MOAH Contamination of Food: Still a Challenge

Mineral oil components in food continue to pose a major challenge in the Food sector and especially to Food manufacturers. Their toxicology and risk assessment are still under discussion and having an uniform European legal regulation is still an open topic.

Today, the LC-GC-FID method for the determination of MOSH and MOAH is an internationally accepted method. In addition, the German Society for Fat Science standardized a method. However, the analysis of mineral oil (MOSH/MOAH) is still challenging and not readily applicable to a wide range of matrices.
Thus,  evidence-based toxicological and food law statements can be made only based on validated analytics.

Toxicology, Analytics, Risk assessment & Mitigation were at the Heart of the Discussions

Toxicology

• MOAH – Carcinogenicity for compounds with equal or more than 3R has been confirmed. We need more data on distribution of ring systems in composed food;
• New approach – Results from combination of multidimensional instrumental analysis and AMES-test for the toxicological evaluation of MOAH are in agreement with the EFSA opinion.
  

Analytics

• A new ISO method 20122 for fats and oils will be available soon. Application level will be MOSH 3 mg/kg – MOAH 2 mg/kg;
• A new epoxidation clean-up has been developed, but depending on the composition, higher losses have been found (the larger the number of rings, the higher the losses).

Risk Management

• Establishment of nine different product groups with different levels in the benchmark level concept. Several stakeholders ask for a transfer of benchmark levels to legal levels;
• There is a call to action for Laboratories to develop methods to quantify MOAH with a specific number of aromatic rings.

Mitigation

• Toolbox has been developed as a strategy to optimize GMP;
• The German industry is running a project looking for possibilities to minimize mineral oil components in fats and oils by application of MOH-free lubricants and using MOH-free means for hexane recovery.

Read the whole summary from the DGF

Voices of the participants and speakers

“The updated risk assessment of EFSA, the SCoPAFF statement on MOAH in Food, the latest development in analytical techniques to determine this complex contamination were topics very high in the agenda of everyone”
– Dr Erick Becker, Managing director of Mérieux NutriSciences Germany (Institut Kirchhoff Berlin).

“It felt that the topic has been a hot topic especially in Germany. We are therefore working hard with many European partners to discuss this topic and move forward. The diversity of topics and perspectives helps to cut the respective Gordian knots in the supply and process chains and to clarify final questions on toxicology.” – Dr. rer. Nat. Stephen Hubbes, Rapunzel Naturkost GmbH