PMID- 38342520 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20240214 LR - 20240214 IS - 1873-7145 (Electronic) IS - 0963-9969 (Linking) VI - 179 DP - 2024 Mar TI - Stable isotope ratios and current-use pesticide levels in edible insects: Implications on chemical food safety. PG - 114020 LID - S0963-9969(24)00090-5 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114020 [doi] AB - In the past years, the European Union (EU) has added edible insects to the list of novel foods, allowing an increasing number of insect-based products into the European market. With insects gaining more popularity in the Western world, it is crucial to investigate their chemical food safety. This study aimed at investigating possible isotopic patterns in different edible insect species (n = 52) from Asia, Africa and Europe using stable isotope ratio analysis (SIRA) to provide a framework for future investigations on food authenticity and traceability. Additionally, complementary mass-spectrometric screening approaches were applied to gain a comprehensive overview of contamination levels of current-use pesticides (CUPs) in edible insects, to assess their chemical food safety. SIRA revealed significant differences between countries in delta(13)C(VPDB)- (p < 0.001) and delta(15)N(air)- (p < 0.001) values. While it was not possible to distinguish between individual countries using principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminative analysis (LDA), the latter could be used to distinguish between larger geographical areas (i.e. Africa, Europe and Asia). In general, African samples had a more distinct isotopic profile compared to European and Asian samples. When comparing the isotopic compositions of samples containing pesticides with samples with no detected pesticides, differences in sulphur compositions could be observed. Additionally, LDA was able to correctly classify the presence of pesticides in a sample with 76% correct classification based on the sulphur composition. These findings show that SIRA could be a useful tool to provide a framework for future investigations on food authenticity and traceability of edible insects. A total of 26 CUPs were detected using suspect screening and an additional 30 CUPS were quantified using target analysis, out of which 9 compounds had a detection frequency higher than 30%. Most detected pesticides were below the maximum residue levels (MRLs) for meat, suggesting low contamination levels. However, dichlorvos and fipronil could be detected in the same order of magnitude as the MRLs, even in samples purchased in Europe. These findings indicate a limited chemical risk for edible insects regarding pesticide contamination. Nevertheless, the study also highlights that further and more extensive investigations are needed to give a comprehensive assessment of the chemical risk of edible insects as a novel food source in Europe. With insects recently being potentially more incorporated into daily diets, more attention should be paid to possible chemical hazards to accurately assess their risk and to ensure food safety. CI - Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved. FAU - Macan Schonleben, Alicia AU - Macan Schonleben A AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. Electronic address: Alicia.MacanSchonleben@uantwerpen.be. FAU - Yin, Shanshan AU - Yin S AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. FAU - Strak, Ethan AU - Strak E AD - Food Forensics, 5 Frensham Road, NR3 2BT Norwich, United Kingdom. FAU - Johnson, Alison AU - Johnson A AD - Food Forensics, 5 Frensham Road, NR3 2BT Norwich, United Kingdom. FAU - Belova, Lidia AU - Belova L AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. FAU - Ait Bamai, Yu AU - Ait Bamai Y AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. FAU - van Nuijs, Alexander L N AU - van Nuijs ALN AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. FAU - Poma, Giulia AU - Poma G AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. Electronic address: Giulia.Poma@uantwerpen.be. FAU - Covaci, Adrian AU - Covaci A AD - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Review DEP - 20240123 PL - Canada TA - Food Res Int JT - Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.) JID - 9210143 RN - 0 (Pesticides) RN - 70FD1KFU70 (Sulfur) SB - IM MH - Animals MH - *Edible Insects MH - *Pesticides/analysis MH - Food MH - Food Safety MH - Insecta MH - Sulfur OTO - NOTNLM OT - Environmental contaminants OT - Food authenticity OT - Food safety OT - High-resolution mass spectrometry OT - Novel food OT - Pesticide screening OT - Stable isotope ratio analysis COIS- Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. EDAT- 2024/02/12 05:43 MHDA- 2024/02/12 05:44 CRDT- 2024/02/11 20:59 PHST- 2023/08/30 00:00 [received] PHST- 2024/01/08 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2024/01/12 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2024/02/12 05:44 [medline] PHST- 2024/02/12 05:43 [pubmed] PHST- 2024/02/11 20:59 [entrez] AID - S0963-9969(24)00090-5 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114020 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Food Res Int. 2024 Mar;179:114020. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114020. Epub 2024 Jan 23.