Formaldehyde in cultivated mushrooms: a negligible risk for the consumer

Abstract

Following the detection of formaldehyde in cultivated mushrooms, an evaluation was carried out to assess whether its presence in food poses a risk to public health. Formaldehyde, a carcinogenic chemical, has a broad range of industrial applications and, hence, exposure to formaldehyde is ubiquitous through diverse consumer goods, food, the air, etc. The observed levels of formaldehyde in mushrooms are lower than the levels reported for vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and dairy products. On the basis of available data, a rough estimate of the dietary exposure to formaldehyde was performed. The exposure through the consumption of cultivated mushrooms (approximately 0.19 µg kg⁻¹ body weight day⁻¹ on average, consumers only) appeared to be small compared with the total dietary intake of formaldehyde (approximately 99.0 µg kg⁻¹ body weight day⁻¹, total population). Based on comparison with toxicological safety limits for chronic exposure and given that formaldehyde is carcinogenic only through inhalation and not by ingestion, it can be concluded that the dietary exposure to formaldehyde is not a cause for concern.

Keywords:

• high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
• natural toxicants
• pesticide residues
• mushrooms

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the Scientific Committee of the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain for their guidance of this study.