What is Cereulide which is considered a dangerous toxin?

Illustration of food contamination (Pixabay)

YOGYAKARTA - Nestlé has withdrawn baby formula in 49 countries due to alleged contamination with poisons. The contamination comes from a substance called cereulide. What is cereulide in simple terms can be understood as a poison that can threaten health. To understand more, see the following article.

What is Cereulide?

In a review article in the journal Foods (MDPI) written by Shuo Yang, et al. (2023) it is explained that cereulide is an emetic toxin or a trigger of vomiting produced from the bacterium Bacillus cereus. This toxin substance can be found in food ingredients, especially such as rice and cereal products.

Cereulide works by interfering with mitochondrial function, causing loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and decreased ATP production. The effects of the toxin can be nausea and vomiting with a duration of up to 5 hours. Even in severe cases, this toxin is capable of triggering damage to the liver, pancreas, intestines, nervous system, and immune system.

In an article entitled Cereulide Toxin as a Major Factor in Bacillus Cereus Vomiting Syndrome written by Alfi Sophian, it is explained that cereulide is a highly stable emetic toxin. It is not damaged even though the food goes through the cooking process, digestive enzymes, or acidity in the stomach. The stability of cereulide makes one of these toxins cannot be prevented by thermal processing alone.

Similar things were also mentioned by Yang et al. (2023). In his research, it was explained that cereulide indeed cannot be eliminated or deactivated by ordinary food processing. this happens for several reasons as follows.

Very heat-stable even when heated to 121°C for 2 hours Resistant to extreme pH in the pH range of 2-10. This means that the toxin has no effect on either acidic or alkaline environments. Not damaged by common food processing methods How to Prevent Cereulide

The presence of cereulide is quite dangerous if found in food. However, prevention cannot be done in food processing, but focuses on inhibiting bacterial growth and toxin production.

Simply put, cereulide can form in food during storage, or when processing is done incorrectly. If this toxin has contaminated food, it means that killing the bacteria that triggered it will not eliminate the cereulide that has already contaminated it.

Thus, contamination prevention can only be done before the toxin is successfully formed, not afterwards.

That's the information related to what is cereulide. Visit VOI.id to get other interesting information.