Pesticides and Heavy Metals as Food Contaminants

Abstract

From the general pollution, contaminants spread along a variety of routes, many of which lead to our food. Pesticides and heavy metals as food contaminants have raised strong public concern and contributed to the general uneasiness associated with the pollution boom of the last two decades. Pesticides in food are predominantly residues from their application on growing crops, less often from post harvest use on stored agricultural products, whereas heavy metals contaminate the food at various stages along the food production line. Both groups of contaminants exhibit in the number of their members a spectrum of health hazards. A few examples of these will be dealt with, and thought will be given to some features in the philosophies behind the current practices of risk assessment and management in this area.

A widespread shortage of toxicological expertice maintain a level of ignorance sufficient to make risk evaluation very often a dilemma. This distressing shortcoming at least partly arises from a common neglect of toxicology as a university discipline.

Some international efforts to control food contamination will also be touched upon.