Evaluating the safety of phytochemicals in food

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. 

Since fruit and vegetable consumption is recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle, it could be argued that there is no need to obtain detailed safety data on individual phytochemicals that are present in these items of the diet. This ignores the fact that  

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