Emerging Issues on Tropane Alkaloid Contamination of Food in Europe

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• Besides the occurrence and number of plants, climate change can also cause weed plants such as D. stramonium to grow larger and produce more seeds, even at water-limiting conditions [131]

• For example, S. ptycanthum is a noxious weed in fields where soybeans are grown, and the toxic metabolites of this weed can be detected in harvested food crops [132]

• Abia et al. (2020) described in detail how contamination with seeds and other plant parts of D. stramonium can be avoided by applying Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and cleaning produce by Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) [135]

• Analytical methods for the quantification of TAs are nowadays mainly based on LC-MS/MS and LC-HRMS methods [31,139,140]

• In 2016 it was observed that about 22.5% of the food on the market in Europe was found to contain various TAs, mainly from Datura, A. belladonna and Convolvulaceae weeds

• Cases on human intoxications due to TAs after the accidental co-mingling of raw materials for food supplements is illustrated in Section 2.4

• One paper was retrieved on the occurrence of TAs in animal feed in Spain, indicating the presence of TAs in 40% of the samples ranging from 5 to 25 µg/kg [146].

• It is known that toxic compounds from crop plants, ornamental plants and weeds can leach via the soil to sources of drinking water [147]

• This study also showed that many relevant foods are prone to contamination with associated TAs from weeds. It is assumed that weeds will grow more regularly in crop fields since the use of herbicides is strongly discouraged [23]

• In Europe, currently, this issue mainly concerns cereals, single ingredient or multi-cereal products, and millet and millet-based products, followed by buckwheat

• An emerging risk are the TAs from bindweed, a species expected to severely contaminate crop fields in future [75]