Remediation Process for Aflatoxin Contaminated Foods

描述（由申请人提供）：黄曲霉毒素是由曲霉在多种农产品上产生的致癌化合物，影响世界上25%的粮食作物。由于缺乏去除和破坏食品和饲料中这些化合物的实用方法，被黄曲霉毒素污染的作物和原料通常被销毁或与毒性较低的食品和饲料混合。人类和动物种群在全球范围内暴露于黄曲霉毒素是重要的，主要通过污染水平的监管调查进行管理。美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）已确定食品中黄曲霉毒素的作用水平为20 ppb，牛奶中黄曲霉毒素M1（一种有毒的牛代谢产物）的作用水平为0.5 ppb。这些限制是由FDA制定的，目的是尽量减少，而不是消除，对这些致癌物的接触。尽管采取了这些控制措施，但仍然需要开发一种经济上和工业上相关的工艺，用于为人类和动物消费的受黄曲霉毒素污染的农产品解毒。全谷物修复方法，如使用气相臭氧或氨化氧化，通过化学影响最终产品，在最终产品上产生不良的味道和气味残留。一种替代方法是通过萃取和氧化两阶段去除和破坏化合物。己烷在全球范围内被用作棉籽、玉米和花生加工过程中首选的植物油提取溶剂。自20世纪40年代以来，石油基溶剂的提取效率、成本和可用性是选择商业己烷从含油材料中提取食用油的主要因素。然而，己烷的主要成分正己烷现在在美国被规定为有害空气污染物（HAP），并对油籽加工业造成重大的经济阻碍。丙酮最近被证明是一种技术上可行的替代己烷的植物油提取方法，因为它毒性更小，不是HAP，并且对现有的榨油工厂的基础设施要求最低，使其成为美国和国外油籽行业的一个有吸引力的替代品。第一阶段的研究确定了使用具有成本竞争力和环境友好的丙酮工艺从玉米中提取黄曲霉毒素的可行性和经济性。这种方法证明，2005年在美国收获的受自然污染的玉米中高浓度黄曲霉毒素减少了90%。第二阶段的研究将侧重于进一步将黄曲霉毒素分离到植物油生产过程中产生的皂料中，在那里可以使用撬装的化学解毒装置将其破坏。第二阶段还将包括对该解毒策略的详细分析、体外和体内验证，扩大到每天8小时1吨（2,000磅）的生产过程，以验证经济可行性，在工业中试工厂测试氧化原型，并生产去污染脱脂饲料和油，用于家禽验证。黄曲霉毒素是天然存在的致癌物，尽管在各种食品和饲料中都有规定，但在美国和世界范围内，黄曲霉毒素仍然对人类和动物的健康构成危害。目前还没有切实可行的方法来分离和销毁受污染的原始农产品中的这些毒素，迫使食品生产商和加工商在与现有的清洁商品混合或销毁受污染的谷物或油籽之间做出选择。拟议的创新利用了一种新的两阶段工艺，集成在现有的全球油籽提取工业基础设施中，以净化商品，允许安全，具有市场竞争力的食品馏分并降低癌症风险。

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.