Detection of mutagenicity in dietary products consumed by children in Lebanon using mutachromoplate assay

Abstract

The current study is the first of its kind in Lebanon; it relied on the MutaChromoPlate assay for the detection of mutagenicity of food samples containing food additives. Cancer is a leading cause of death nowadays with reasons attributed to a variety of interacting factors, both genetic and external. The pediatric sector in Lebanon suffers yearly of approximately 200 new cases of cancer. Increased consumption of snacks by children and being highly loaded with food additives in different forms, in addition to knowing that literature has shown that food additives might include mutagenic agents, set a destination for their testing, looking for mutagenic agents. Samples were treated in 96 well plates with two types of mutated, histidine deficient S. typhimurium bacterial strain, TA 100 and TA 98 that would only survive if back mutated by a mutagen, regaining synthesis of histidine. The results indicated that 30 samples out of 127 were mutagenic at 99% of significance, where 6 samples were only mutagenic in S. typhimurium TA 98 and 6 samples were only mutagenic in S. typhimurium TA 100, indicating that the detected mutagens have different mode of actions. Also, products conforming to requirements and specifications regarding their production, and storage have presented negative results, thus being non mutagenic. Products ingested by children, that do not follow international guidelines of safety, are more probable to be mutagenic than those of better consideration toward safety of food. Thus, children should not consume products with unsanitary storage conditions and unspecified ingredients and dates of production/expiration. Chemical components of positively mutagenic samples can be further studied in an attempt to detect the mutagenic agent specifically.