Diacetyl and other flavorings in Food Production Industries

食品生产行业的职业暴露与呼吸道疾病有关，包括闭塞性细支气管炎(BO)，这是一种罕见的肺部疾病，其特征是固定的呼吸道阻塞。回顾了常见的成分，列出了双乙酰和其他调味品，最近的关注集中在双乙酰作为潜在的原因。双乙酰是天然黄油的一种成分，尽管比例很小。它被用来给食物赋予黄油味道，但也被用来创造许多其他口味，包括但不限于草莓、焦糖、榛子和奶油糖果。2007年，美国食品和商业工人工会提名双乙酰进行NTP的长期吸入测试，因为双乙酰可能通过吸入接触到工人。除了评估双乙酰的吸入危害外，还需要确定全行业工人暴露的特征。NIOSH已经确定了暴露于双乙酰的工人的关键研究需求，包括在食品生产行业测量工作场所吸入双乙酰的情况。据报道，奶酪生产(威斯康星州)、酸奶(俄亥俄州)和薯片制造都出现了呼吸问题。然而，调味食品生产行业暴露和患病的可能性在很大程度上仍未得到研究。在同意参加2009财年的五家公司中，完成了走访和暴露评估调查。招聘仍在继续，又有9家公司同意参与。已在其中7家公司进行了走访调查，其中4家公司正在进行暴露评估调查。本财政年度还计划对总共10个参与设施进行一次额外的风险评估调查。其中包括两家小型奶牛场、三家巧克力制造商、两家薯片制造商、一家谷类食品制造商、一家面包店和一家调味品制造商。对收集的数据的评估正在进行中，报告应在2011财年之前完成，并将结果发送给每一家参与公司。初步结果表明，在所访问的地点，双乙酰大多是检测不到的。调查中的大多数网站都是中小型的，使用了少量的调味品，或者根本不使用调味品，但生产或使用的产品都含有天然的双乙酰。只有在分析实验室收集并报告了所有数据之后，才会开始对结果进行详细分析。一家公司正在安装工程控制，并表示有兴趣进行后续暴露评估，以评估工程控制的有效性。如果可行，后续调查可能安排在2011财年。

Occupational exposures in the food production industry have been associated with respiratory disease, including bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), an uncommon lung disease characterized by fixed airways obstruction. A review of common ingredients listed diacetyl among other flavorings and recent attention currently has been focused on diacetyl as the potential cause. Diacetyl is a component of natural butter, albeit a very small proportion. It is used to impart a butter flavor to food items, but is also used to create a number of other flavors including but not limited to strawberry, caramel, hazelnut and butterscotch. In 2007, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union nominated diacetyl for long-term inhalation testing by the NTP because of potential worker exposure via inhaltion. In addition to assessing the inhalation hazard from diacetyl, there is a need to characterize industry-wide worker exposures. NIOSH has identified critical research needs for workers exposed to diacetyl, including the measurement of workplace inhalation to diacetyl in food production industries. Respiratory issues have been annecdotally reported for cheese production (Wisconsin), yogurt (Ohio), and potato chip manufacturing. However, the potential for both exposure and disease in the flavored food production industry still remains largely unstudied. Walk through and exposure assessment surveys were completed at the five companies that agreed to participate in FY2009. Recruitment has continued with nine more companies agreeing to participate. Walk through surveys have been conducted at seven of the companies, with exposure assessment surveys being conducted at four of these. One additional exposure assessment survey is scheduled this fiscal year for a total of 10 participating facilities. These included two small scale dairies, three chocolate manufacturers, two potato chip manufacturers, one cereal manufacturer, one bakery and one flavor manufacturer. Evaluation of the collected data is ongoing and reports should be completed by FY11 to send to each participating company with their results. Preliminary results indicate that diacetyl is mostly non-detectable at the sites visited. Most of the sites in the survey were small to medium size, used small amounts of flavorings, or used no flavorings at all but produced or used products with naturally occurring diacetyl. Detailed analysis of the results will only begin after all the data has been collected and reported by the analytical laboratory. One company is installing engineering controls and expressed interest in a follow-up exposure assessment to evaluate the effectiveness of the engineering controls. If feasible, this follow-up survey may be scheduled in FY11.