About this Research Topic

Background

Although biogenic amines (BAs) play many important physiological roles in the human body, the consumption of foods containing high amounts of these compounds may cause toxicological reactions. In fact, all the population is at risk of biogenic amine exposure by their choices in foods and meal composition. Biogenic amines found in food are microbial metabolites formed by the decarboxylation of their precursor amino acids and can be in a wide range of concentrations, which may vary even within the same type of product. Food safety can be compromised by some biogenic amines, such as tyramine and histamine, which can be involved in the onset of adverse health effects. As an example, histamine and histamine intoxication are one of the hazards and foodborne diseases annually included in report issued by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In addition, histamine can also be the causative agent of histamine intolerance, a disorder that appears in individuals sensitive to histamine levels generally tolerated by healthy population mainly as a consequence of a deficiency of diamine oxidase (DAO), an enzyme responsible for its intestinal degradation. Besides the food safety issue, since the accumulation of biogenic amines in foods can be associated with the activity of specific spoilage organisms, a high content of these compounds as well as its specific origin is used as a chemical marker of inappropriate handling, processing, or storage conditions.

As biogenic amines are an actual quality and food safety concern, this Research Topic will help clarify issues derived from their presence in food. Some uncertainties such as the levels of biogenic amines responsible for adverse health effects and the interindividual sensitivity to these compounds will be addressed. In this sense, it will be important to investigate the potential enhancement of toxicity of tyramine and histamine by specific factors such as the presence of other biogenic amines, drug interaction, and/or gastrointestinal diseases. What are the newer strategies to reduce their exposure risk? The scientific community is invited to provide novel approaches to face this topic, in order to minimize both the occurrence of these compounds in foods and their dietary exposure. For example, it can be interesting to set new regulatory limits for biogenic amines still not considered by the current law and/or to design strategies to increase the consumer awareness to make safer and more conscious choices.

The scope of this Research Topic is to gather novel scientific information on biogenic amines in foods both from a food safety and a quality point of view, to generate advances in the strategies for its control, as well as to assess the actual consumer exposure to these compounds and its potential health implications. Bearing in mind the relevance of this topic of growing interest, a collection of highly innovative manuscripts (articles, reviews, short communications, mini-reviews) could be useful to the scientific community and to all the involved food actors.

Keywords: biogenic amines, histamine, tyramine, cadaverine, putrescine, polyamines, histamine intolerance, food safety, food quality, histamine intoxication, risk assessment, sensitivity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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