Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) is commissioned by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), who in turn is commissioned by the Netherlands Consumer and Product Safety Authority (NVWA), to analyse bivalve molluscs from several production sites in the Netherlands for the presence of marine biotoxins. The analytical method not only detects the marine biotoxins that are regulated, but also several which are not regulated. One group of these non-regulated marine biotoxins are the pinnatoxins, including pinnatoxin G (PnTX-G). Pinnatoxins are produced by the dinoflagellate Vulcanodinium rugosum, and can accumulate in shellfish. In recent years PnTX-G has been regularly detected in bivalve molluscs in the Netherlands.

Pinnatoxins have been monitored in France for a longer period of time. In 2020, ANSES published an article in which a preliminary maximal PnTX-G level in shellfish and crustaceans of 23 μg/kg was derived. This level was based on a provisional acute benchmark value of 0.13 μg PnTX-G/kg body weight (bw), a body weight of 70 kg and a single consumption of 400 g meat from shellfish/crustaceans.

The highest levels of PnTX-G detected in bivalve molluscs in the Netherlands are around the preliminary maximal level derived by ANSES (WFSR, personal communication). This maximal level was based on relatively few data and several uncertainties were described by ANSES. In addition, since 2020, new literature on pinnatoxins has become available. A review of all available information is needed for the NVWA to decide whether action on pinnatoxins in shellfish in the Netherlands is warranted. The Office for Risk Assessment & Research (BuRO) asked the Front Office Food and Product Safety (FO) to investigate whether it is possible to derive a safe value for PnTX-G in shellfish and molluscs using the ANSES publication as starting point. This only concerns the acute toxicity of PnTXs; the chronic toxicity was out of the scope of the question.