Chemicals in food

Statement by the Committee of Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the... 

In a 1996 review, the Committee of Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) estimated the intake of isoflavones from soya-milk to be approximately 4 mg/kg/day over the first 4 months of life. This is greater than that associated with hormonal effects in premenopausal women, but the COT nonetheless supported the existing Department of Health s advice that... 

Food Protection Committee, The use of chemicals in food production,... 

J. H. Draize, Appraisal of the Safety of Chemicals in Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics, Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States Business Office, Bureau of Food and Drugs, Austin, Texas, Chap. Dermal Toxicity, Texas State Dept, of Health, 1959, pp. 46-48. 

The safety of a diet could be defined as the overall risk-benefit of consuming that diet over a lifetime. This concept is not one that is applied in determining the safety of a chemical in food. Safety is almost invariably considered as the absence, or minimisation, of risk and not as the maximisation of benefit. Consequently, the scientific basis for regulating food chemicals is based on principles that were developed for assessing the risks posed by pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals, and minimising these, rather than for maximising the benefits. 

In order to determine the likely contaminations of chemicals in foods for consnmption, all factors that may impact the final level shonld be considered systematically initial concentrations, effect of each individnal step in food prodnction on final chemical levels, and potential reactions with other agents. 

Renwick, A.G., Risk characterization of chemicals in food, Toxicol. Lett., 149, 163, 2004. 

Parmar, B., Miller, P.F., and Burt, R., Stepwise approaches for estimating the intakes of chemicals in food, Regul Toxicol. Pharmacol, 26, 44, 1997. 

Cl. Dybing, E. et al.. Hazard characterization of chemicals in food and diet dose response, mechanisms and extrapolation issues. Food Chem. Toxicol, 40, 237, 2002. 

In recent decades, the synthetic colorant market has dechned, to the benefit of the natural-oriented market and consumers. Excluding FD C Red 40 and Red 28, the synthetic colorants are now as well accepted as they were. In addition to the decreasing enthusiasm for chemicals in food, the high costs of toxicological studies also inhibit the development and approval of new synthetic colorants. The existing technologies used for the extraction, concentration, and purification of natural plant pigments to be used as food colorants still produce lower yields and the final products are still expensive. 

F.A. Gunther, (ed.), Residue Reviews (Residues of Pesticides and Other Foreign Chemicals in Foods and Feed), Academic Press, New York, and Springer, Berlin (1962) (subsequent volumes are up to Vol. 171, 2001, edited by G. Ware). 

What has helped me more than anything else is minimizing my exposure to chemicals in food, air and water. I ve started eating organic foods and replaced all of my personal care and cleaning products with less-toxic, unscented products. 

The major influence behind this seems to have been the extent of coverage in the media, where problems with food rather than the successes tend to be reported. Scientific perception of risk is, not unexpectedly, rather different. Indeed scientists may not agree amongst themselves about where additives should be placed in any ranked list of chemicals in food. But most would probably agree that they should be near the bottom. My own ranking would be as follows, from greatest to least risk ... 

Misconceptions about food additives are perpetuated in the media and popular press, and recently have been disseminated via the Internet. There is confusion about the sources and functions of these compounds. Consumers are confused, for example, about the relative safety of natural as opposed to artificial food ingredients. A number of studies have shown consumers suspicion of synthetic chemicals in foods which are seen as posing a higher health risk than natural ingredients (Sloan et al., 1986 McNutt et al., 1986 Crowe et al., 1992). Unrealistic fears about food additives may be attributed in part to the public s fundamental lack of understanding of toxicology, including the failure to appreciate the concept of dose or the body s capacity to metabolize and detoxify the myriad of food constituents people are exposed to daily (Jones, 1992). 

The techniques used to establish the risks posed by pesticides are dynamic and evolving. The passage of the FQPA in 1996 paved the way for the development of sophisticated computational models for assessing pesticide exposure, and future refinement of such models is anticipated. Such advancements in pesticide risk assessment techniques should be applicable to the risk assessment of other chemicals in foods and in the environment. 

Chemicals in food and water, some medicines, and even some present in soils or dusts that are incidentally ingested can be absorbed along the entire GI tract. By absorption we mean the movement of the chemical through the membranes of the different types of cells comprising the wall of the GI tract so that it ends up in the bloodstream. 

Lehman AJ. 1951. Chemicals in foods A report to the Association of Food and Drug Officials on current developments. Part II. Pesticides. U S Q Bull 15 122-133. 

The Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General (DG SANCO) is responsible for the legislations regarding chemicals in food and consumer products (EU 2006f). 

The short-term actions include (1) establishment of a priority list of substances for further evaluation of their role in endocrine disruption monitoring levels of suspect chemicals in food and the environment (2) identification of vulnerable groups of people (such as children) who need to be given special consideration (3) establishment of an international network to enable information exchange and coordination of research and testing and (4) communication with the public and continuing consultation with stakeholders. 

Farmer P Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment ILSl/HESl research programme on alternative cancer models results of Syrian hamster embryo cell transformation assay. International Life Sciences Institute/Health and Environmental Science Institute. Toxicol Pathol 2002 30 536-8. 

Lehman AJ Chemicals in foods A report to the association of food and drug officials on current developments part II. Pesticides. Q Bull Assoc Food Drug Ojf US 15 122-133, 1951... 

Just before Thanksgiving the government announced that it had destroyed cranberries contaminated with a chemical, aminotriazole, which produced cancer in rats. The cranberries were from a lot frozen from two years earlier when the chemical was still an approved weed killer. The animal studies were not completed until 1959. Even though there was no evidence that the 1959 crop was contaminated, cranberry sales dropped precipitously and public fears about dangerous chemicals in food lingered. 

England - Department of Health - Committee on toxicity of chemicals in food consumer products and the environment - Statement on the reproductive effects of caffeine. Online. Available HTTP (accessed 2 April 2003). 

EPA. 2002J. Tolerances and exemptions ffom tolerances for pesticide chemicals in food. Sodium chlorite exemption ffom the requirement of a tolerance. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Code of Federal Regulations. 40 CFR 180.1070. http //ecffback.access.gpo.gov/. April 24, 2002. 

Daft JL. 1991. Fumigants and related chemicals in foods review of residue findings, contamination sources and analytical methods. Sci Total Environ 100 501-518. 

By now you will be comfortable with the idea that the body treats drugs as just another set of chemicals to cope with, and also the idea that drugs interact with many molecules in many sites - with gastric acid, with chemicals in food, with enzymes in the gut and others in the gut wall and liver, with plasma proteins in the blood, and (often transiently) with their tissue receptor once they have got that far. 

Melnikov NN. 1971. I. Introduction. In Gunther FA, Gunther JD, ed. Residue reviews Residues of pesticides and other foreign chemicals in foods and feeds. Vol. 36. New York, NY Springer-Verlag. 

The rising concern about toxic chemicals in foods... 

United Kingdom Department of Health (1991) Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment Guidelines for the evaluation of chemicals for carcinogenicity. London, Her Majesty s Stationery Office. 

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