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Symposium on analytical method challenges for measuring nutrients and antinutrients in plants: Introduction to the symposium1 W. D. Price2 Office of Surveillance and Compliance, Center for Veterinary Medicine, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD 20855 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborated in 1990 to provide guidance for safety assessment of bioengineered plants. It established that the comparison of the final product to an appropriate comparator having an acceptable standard of safety is an important element in the safety assessment (WHO, 1991). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1993 devised a concept of substantial equivalence as the best strategy for the outcome of the comparative approach for the safety and nutritional assessment of genetically modified foods (OECD, 1993). Substantial equivalence is considered a key step in the safety assessment process, but by itself, is not the entire safety assessment. The FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Biotechnology and Food Safety (FAO/WHO, 1996) concluded that a compositional comparison of the bioengineered food to its non-modified comparator is a very important step in determining substantial equivalence. It further concluded that the data for the comparator can be the ranges reported in the published literature as well as data from direct comparisons with the GM variety. The Expert Consultation also felt that the comparison should be made on the critical components of the food (i.e., key nutrients, key toxicants and key antinutrients for the food source in question). In 2000, a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Foods Derived from Biotechnology concluded that the concept of substantial equivalence is a practical approach to the safety assessment of genetically modified food (FAO/WHO, 2000). It agreed with the other groups that substantial equivalence is the first step in safety assessment process, although it does not necessarily 1 Symposium sponsors: Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 2 Correspondence: HFV-200, 7500 Standish Place (phone: 301-8276652; fax: 301-594-1812; E-mail: [email protected]). Received November 12, 2002. Accepted May 6, 2003. characterize all the hazards. The Expert Consultation concluded that the use of the substantial equivalence approach contributes to a robust safety assessment framework. The OECD in 1997 moved to focus its work on the development of science-based consensus documents (OECD, 1997). The primary emphasis was to be on the composition of important food plants that had been or were being modified, and would be used for human food or animal feed. The documents outline the origin of the food/feed crop, its world-wide use, its processing for food/feed, the nutrients for which it is included in the diet, the toxicants and antinutrients present and the significance of their presence. Each document suggests key nutrients, key toxicants and key antinutrients to be analyzed and compared for substantial equivalence for both food and feed. Various countries have taken the lead in authoring consensus documents: Canada (canola), United States (soybean), Germany (potato and sugar beet), United States and The Netherlands (maize), and Australia (wheat). Other documents are in preparation: rice (Japan, Canada, and United States), cotton (United States), sunflower (France), barley (Germany, Finland, and United States) and forages (U.K.). Measuring the composition of plants as recorded in the OECD documents is inherent to animal nutrition. When one looks at the literature for reports on plant composition, it is apparent that analytical methods influence the values reported. Some of these methods pose significant challenges. It is evident that it makes no difference whether one is evaluating bioengineered or nonbioengineered plants, the challenges are the same. This symposium was designed to address, through the eyes of nutritionists and chemists, some of the analytical method challenges for the composition of all plants. It seemed natural to separate the topics into minerals, nonfiber carbohydrates (NFC), insoluble dietary fiber (IDF), fat, antinutrients/toxicants, and moisture. The first paper addresses minerals in feedstuffs and some of the challenges associated with those methods, such as complications in freeing the minerals from the plant matrix in the right oxidation state and free of interfering material. Another important discussion topic is instrumentation. Papers two and three address 3216 3217 Analytical methods symposium motivation plant fiber methods. The multiple challenges in selecting a relevant analytical system that is applicable to food and feed NFC are confronted in the second paper. The third paper addresses IDF methods with a goal to discuss challenges in accurately evaluating the nutritional quality of fiber in the diet. The fourth paper explores the problems with current fat methods and the lack of applicability of the results to nutrition. The author suggests a preferred method of fat analysis. The fifth paper reviews the current status of method for measuring the antinutrient/toxicants raffinose, oligosaccharides, pentosan, phytic acid, and glucosinolates. Recommendations for best analytical practice are suggested. The sixth and last paper addresses challenges in measuring moisture content of feed. The attributes and challenges with several methods are discussed. Literature Cited FAO/WHO. 1996. Report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on biotechnology and food safety: review of existing safety evaluation strategies and guidelines. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, Rome, Italy. Available: http://www.fao.org/es/esn/biotech.htm. FAO/WHO. 2000. Report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on foods derived from biotechnology, held in Geneva, Switzerland. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, Rome, Italy. Available: http://www.fao.org/es/esn/biotech.htm. OECD. 1993. Safety evaluation of foods produced by modern biotechnology: Concepts and principles. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, France. OECD. 1997. Toxicological and nutritional testing of novel foods. Report of the OECD Workshop, Aussois, France. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, France. WHO. 1991. Strategies for assessing the safety of foods produced by biotechnology. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Consultation. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.