Food Poisoning Case Studies: Mushroom And Pufferfish Toxin Investigation

In this chapter, two food investigation case studies involving lethal natural toxins are discussed. The first one is in relation to a fatal mushroom poisoning incident in a remote village of a developing country within the Indochina region. The incident was referred by the Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organization who requested that we carry out an examination of the culprit mushrooms. The investigation was carried out with the aim of ascertaining the presence of any unknown toxin in the suspected food items. A positive confirmation of the toxic substance provided useful information on the root cause of the food poisoning case and assisted the establishment of appropriate measures by the concerned authorities to educate local villagers for a better understanding to prevent eating suspected poisonous mushrooms. The second case study was connected to the identification of a mislabeled pre-packaged dried grouper fish meat by DNA sequence analysis during a routine food surveillance program in Hong Kong. The problematic food item was found to contain a significant amount of tetrodotoxin, a pufferfish toxin that should not be present in the grouper species, using a validated liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method. The analytical information provided sufficient scientific evidence to the local food authority for urgent recall of the food product from the market and to prevent a potential mass poisoning outbreak.