ANSES

French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) is a public administrative institution which reports to the Ministers for Health, Agriculture, the Environment, Labor and Consumer Affairs. ANSES undertakes monitoring, expert assessment, research and reference activities in a broad range of topics that encompass human health, animal health and well-being, and plant health. In terms of human health, ANSES covers three fields: food, the environment and the workplace. On the basis of its scientific reports, it formulates opinions and recommendations for the authorities.

The unit of Toxicology of contaminants (Fougères laboratory) has a long experience in hazard evaluation of toxins, mainly phycotoxins and more recently mycotoxins. The laboratory is equipped with cell culture facilities as well as an automated cell imaging system (ArrayScan VTi) for high content analysis.

Project role

ANSES will lead WP4, within which they will perform toxicity assays to determine toxic endpoints of mycotoxins including masked and emerging ones as well as the potential by-products generated by the mitigation protocols. ANSES will be involved in the preparation of the toxicity database dealing with the toxic effects reported for the different mycotoxins (bibliography).

We will complete mycotoxin toxicity data with key in vitro results when appropriate, especially on genotoxicity and some key endpoints (oxidative stress, inflammation) on a panel of cell lines. We will also investigate the fate of the mycotoxins along the mitigation protocols as well as the production of by-products using cell-based assays to check the effect on toxicity.