Toxicity equivalence factors for regulated and non-regulated marine toxins

Marine Toxins are classified into groups such as saxitoxin, okadaic acid, azaspiracid, domoic acid, brevetoxin and palytoxin. They cause various shellfish poisonings after the consumption of seafood naturally contaminated. Many countries worldwide have established maximum permitted concentration of several toxin groups in seafood expressed as the level of the reference compound. The estimation of the total toxicity of seafood samples for risk assessment requires the determination of Toxicity Equivalence Factors (TEF). At present, TEFs are largely based on toxicity by intraperitoneal injection in mouse. Since humans are exposed to marine toxins by oral route, relevant parameters for updating TEFs are data from lethal doses via oral administration in animals. For non-regulated groups, not enough information is available to determine TEFs.