Toxicological risk of consuming melamine contaminated food products in human body & its detection techniques

Tabassum, Fatima

Abstract

Now-a-days, food adulteration is a burning issue in global food business and as well as for the people who purchase these food items. Adulteration not only disturbs the public health but also abolish the global business. Melamine is one of the poisonous substances that cause harmful effects in the organs of the human body. Melamine that is encompassed of a trimer of cyanamide, which is used as a constituent of plastic in the industry. It contains 66% of nitrogen by mass and due to this high nitrogen content, melamine is added to different nutritional substances raises their protein levels. This literature review revealed that, because of the presence of melamine in powder milk, it causes death of newborns. It was also found that huge number of people became hospitalized in China, Australia, Myanmar, Taiwan, and Bangladesh and in several countries for the issue of renal impairment, central nervous system dysfunction, dysfunction in digestive system and reproductive system due to increase consumption of melamine contaminated food products. According to the reports of WHO, EFSA and FDA, the normal tolerable range of melamine for the human body is 0.2 mg/kg body weight. When the normal range exceeds, it shows the toxicological effects in the body. Therefore, it is essential to determine the level of melamine contamination in food products such as powder milk, powder infant formula, liquid milk etc. There are different techniques available to detect melamine contamination and its level with certain techniques. Among them, HPLC UV, enzyme kit detector, synthetic dye, ion chromatography with UV detector are most importantly used to determine the concentration of melamine present in food products. Toxicokinetic study discovered that melamine might not stay in the body for a long time but it affects more organs of human body than we anticipated. This review work was focused to find out the information on toxicological risk of consuming melamine contaminated food products in human body & its detection techniques. Findings of this review showed that, a number of companies who were involved in the production of milk and baby formula, intentionally adulterated milk product to enhance the protein level. Due to this adulteration, different body organs are exposed to a number of toxicological problems as mentioned above. To conclude, it can be inferred that, this review information will help to create awareness among the general people regarding this issue and it will also help the scientists to get information about melamine toxicity and its detection techniques who want to explore further research in this area.

Keywords

Melamine; Toxic; Food products

LC Subject Headings

Food -- Analysis.; Melamine -- Testing -- Methodology.

Description

Now-a-days, food adulteration is a burning issue in global food business and as well as for the people who purchase these food items. Adulteration not only disturbs the public health but also abolish the global business. Melamine is one of the poisonous substances that cause harmful effects in the organs of the human body. Melamine that is encompassed of a trimer of cyanamide, which is used as a constituent of plastic in the industry. It contains 66% of nitrogen by mass and due to this high nitrogen content, melamine is added to different nutritional substances raises their protein levels. This literature review revealed that, because of the presence of melamine in powder milk, it causes death of newborns. It was also found that huge number of people became hospitalized in China, Australia, Myanmar, Taiwan, and Bangladesh and in several countries for the issue of renal impairment, central nervous system dysfunction, dysfunction in digestive system and reproductive system due to increase consumption of melamine contaminated food products. According to the reports of WHO, EFSA and FDA, the normal tolerable range of melamine for the human body is 0.2 mg/kg body weight. When the normal range exceeds, it shows the toxicological effects in the body. Therefore, it is essential to determine the level of melamine contamination in food products such as powder milk, powder infant formula, liquid milk etc. There are different techniques available to detect melamine contamination and its level with certain techniques. Among them, HPLC UV, enzyme kit detector, synthetic dye, ion chromatography with UV detector are most importantly used to determine the concentration of melamine present in food products. Toxicokinetic study discovered that melamine might not stay in the body for a long time but it affects more organs of human body than we anticipated. This review work was focused to find out the information on toxicological risk of consuming melamine contaminated food products in human body & its detection techniques. Findings of this review showed that, a number of companies who were involved in the production of milk and baby formula, intentionally adulterated milk product to enhance the protein level. Due to this adulteration, different body organs are exposed to a number of toxicological problems as mentioned above. To conclude, it can be inferred that, this review information will help to create awareness among the general people regarding this issue and it will also help the scientists to get information about melamine toxicity and its detection techniques who want to explore further research in this area.

Catalogued from PDF version of project report.

Includes bibliographical references (page 40-51).

Department

Department of Pharmacy, BRAC University

Type

Project report