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Fumonisins

In the body: Acts on the liver.

None of the 3 rated foods needs a cap on how often you eat it. The closest is corn tortillas: about 190 g, eaten alone, reaches the daily limit. One more reviewed food carries it but isn’t rated yet.

Builds up over time. Agencies set an amount you can take in every week, or every day, for life. A food measured against it shows the grams that reach it.

All hazards

The limit

  • The agency’s figure1 µg/kg body weight/day
  • For a 70 kg adult70 µg a day
  • Basistolerable daily intake (TDI): what you can take in every day for life
    group tolerable daily intake (TDI) (FB1–FB4)
  • Average adult intake EFSA's 2018 opinion gives no average adult intake. A serving under half the tolerable daily intake cannot trigger a cap whatever that average is.
  • Source EFSA 2018

Reviewed foods that carry it

4 reviewed foods carry it, 3 of them rated by dose.

Grams to the limit

Grams of each food that reach the limit in its window, for a 70 kg adult. Fewest first: those are the foods to watch.

  1. Corn tortillas

    Nothing to watch: under the limit for a 55 g serving

    190g
    reaches the limit in a day
    Counted from zero: this food eaten alone.
    20.4 µg per 55 g serving

    CFIA 2018–2019 · grade B

    How it’s rated

    A bound, not an estimate: 3.0–20.4 µg a serving (4.9–32.7 with EFSA's +60% for modified forms) stays under half the tolerable daily intake (35 µg), so it cannot trigger a cap whatever the average adult intake is.

    Intake: one 55 g serving a day, 70 kg adult · Level in the food: 371.4 µg/kg (mean, n = 52)

    Measured on: category: CFIA Flour – Corn (FB1+FB2); Corn Products 55.4 (n = 30)

  2. Popcorn, air-popped

    Nothing to watch: under the limit for a 50 g serving

    470g
    reaches the limit in a day
    Counted from zero: this food eaten alone.
    7.5 µg (FB1+FB2) per 50 g serving

    PubMed 34357958 · grade B

    How it’s rated

    No cap: EFSA's 2018 group tolerable daily intake for fumonisins FB1-FB4 is 1 µg/kg body weight/day, 70 µg a day at 70 kg. At 150 µg/kg of FB1+FB2 in hot-air-popped popcorn (39 kernel samples), about 467 g of popcorn in one day, eaten alone, would reach it, an upper bound since FB3, FB4 and hidden forms were not measured. A 50 g serving carries 7.5 µg, 11% of the limit (microwave-popped, 192 µg/kg: 9.6 µg, 14%). EFSA's 2018 opinion gives no adult mean, so the doubling test cannot be run; the older EFSA 2014 adult means ran 0.03-1.19 µg/kg body weight/day.

    Intake: 50 g popped popcorn serving (HC TRA S.1) · Level in the food: 150 µg/kg (mean ± standard deviation 150 ± 61 µg/kg FB1+FB2 in hot-air-popped popcorn (each of 39 kernel samples popped; kernels before popping 1,351 ± 352, popping cut FB1+FB2 by 89% in the hot-air mode); max of the unpopped samples 9,315 µg/kg, n = 39)

    Measured on: Schambri 2021 (Toulouse lab; lot origin not stated): 39 commercial popcorn kernel samples (21 butterfly, 18 mushroom), popped by hot air, microwave or hot oil; LC-MS/MS, FB1 + FB2 only (FB3, FB4 and hidden forms not measured), detection limit (detection limit) 12.5 / quantification limit (quantification limit) 25 µg/kg, below the detection limit as zero and below quantification limit as quantification limit; as popped

  3. Tortilla chips

    Nothing to watch: under the limit for a 50 g serving

    More than anyone eats
    No realistic amount reaches the limit.
    0.672 µg per 50 g serving

    CFIA 2018–2019 · grade A

    How it’s rated

    The counted figure is 5,200 g a day, about 104 servings a day.

    No cap: EFSA's group tolerable daily intake for fumonisins is 1.0 µg/kg body weight/day (2018), 70 µg/day. A 50 g serving carries 0.672 µg, 0.96% of it, so it stays under 1% of the limit whatever the adult average. No more than about 5,200 g of chips a day would reach it, eaten alone (about 1,080 g at the highest single sample, 65 µg/kg).

    Intake: one 50 g reference serving a day (Health Canada TRA S.1), 70 kg adult · Level in the food: 13.444 ng/g (mean of FB1+FB2+FB3, n = 18)

    Measured on: food-specific: CFIA Multi-Mycotoxins in Corn Products, Crackers, Other Grain Products, Pasta and Gluten-Free Products, April 2018-March 2019, product 'Chips - Corn', retail, 6 Canadian cities; as sold

  4. Sweet corn, frozen, cooked

    Not rated yet for a 85 g serving

    No gram figure for this food

    PubMed 7756885 · grade B

    How it’s rated

    Not rated: EFSA's 2018 group tolerable daily intake for fumonisins is 1 µg/kg body weight/day, 70 µg/day for 70 kg, covering FB1-FB4; only FB1 was measured, so the figure understates the group. No mean exists (Trucksess and Stack 1995, 97 canned and frozen sweet corn samples; 60 had none, 35 had trace amounts up to 82 ng/g), so a typical-serving rating is not possible. At the single highest result (350 ng/g, one frozen sample), about 200 g a day would reach the limit (854 g at 82 ng/g).

    Intake: one 85 g serving a day, 70 kg adult · Level in the food: 350 ng/g (µg/kg) (highest single result among 97 canned and frozen sweet corn samples (one frozen sample); 60 samples had none, 35 trace-82 ng/g; no mean reported, n = 97)

    Measured on: Trucksess & Stack 1995, 97 commercial canned and frozen sweet corn samples from different areas of the United States, FB1 only (limit of detection about 4 ng/g, determination about 25 ng/g). Canned and frozen are pooled in the abstract. Old US data; no Canadian sweet-corn fumonisin data (CFIA's 2018-19 and 2010-11 surveys cover corn products, not frozen sweet corn).

Sources