Chapter 3 Chemical Risk Analysis

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Chapter 3 Chemical Risk Analysis
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Food safety concerns have the potential to cause
significant problems for governments industry

• loss of consumer confidence in food supply
  undermines well-being of society
• economic, social, political consequences
• trade consequences

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Risk factors in food -some examples

• Chemicals
• Used in food production
• Contaminants
• Naturally occurring toxins
• Allergenic proteins
• Microbiological contaminants
• Infective protein agents
• Nutrients and functional ingredients
• New technologies

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Chemical Risk Factors in Food

• Agricultural and veterinary chemical residues
• Environmental contaminants
• Naturally occurring toxins
• Food additives and processing aids
• Contaminants introduced during processing
• Functional foods/ingredients

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Chemical hazards can enter the food supply
through

• Primary production
• Agricultural environment
• Use of herbicides and pesticides
• Harvesting methods
• Storage and handling of produce

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Chemical hazards can enter the food supply
through

• Processing and handling
• Use of processing aids
• Addition of preservatives, colours, flavours, etc
• New technologies processing and packaging
• Storage and handling of food

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Substances added to Food Products
Foods
Food Additives, Processing aids, Herbicides, Pesti
cides
Nutritive Substances
Concentrated Extracts
Bioactive Substances

• Health promotion
• Performance enhancement
• Eg, creatine, carnitine, conjugated linoleic
  acid, glucosamine, choline, ubiquinones

• Technical function
• Single chemicals

• Technical or nutritional function
• Possibly impure food additives,
• nutritive substances or foods
• Eg, stevia extract, guarana extract,
• red clover extract, kava extract

• Nutritional function
• Single chemicals
• Eg, amino acids, vitamins and minerals,
  nucleotides

• Possibly novel

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Community concerns

• Are there risks?
• Who in the community needs protecting?
• Are there benefits associated with the food?
• How is the food regulated elsewhere in the world?
• Are there trade, political, economic
  considerations?

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Special population groups

• Infants
• Pregnant and lactating women
• Elderly
• Individuals with special dietary needs
• Individuals with idiosyncratic reactions

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Considerations for Food Regulations

• No presumption of safety for foods or food
  ingredients
• Increased focus on the purpose of food
  ingredients
• All foods and food ingredients potentially
  subject to a risk assessment
• Need to establish new benchmarks for acceptable
  level of risk

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Why undertake a risk assessment of chemicals in
food?

• Protect public health
• Consumer confidence
• Facilitate trade
• Export markets

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Priorities for Individual Countries

• Public health concerns
• Serious injury to individuals or vulnerable
  population groups
• Consumer perceptions of unsafe food
• Trade concerns
• Meeting import requirements
• Demonstrating good manufacturing practices
• Countries are likely to have different priorities
  

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Food Additives and Processing AidsIssues for
Consideration

• Use Important function in foods
• Exposure
• Widely used in processed foods
• Broad consumer exposure
• Safety
• Low toxicity, in general
• Low potential for health problems
• Trade
• Highly regulated internationally
• High potential for trade problems

Consumer benefits not generally appreciated
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Food Contaminants

• Primary production contaminants
• Processing contaminants

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Characteristics of food contaminants

• No technological purpose
• Unintentional occurrence in food
• - Natural (little control possible)
• - Result of human activity (control
  expensive/difficult)
• Presence in food not always known
• Surveillance necessary

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Environmental ContaminantsIssues for
Consideration

• Exposure
• Presence is highly dependent on variety of
  regulations
• Broad low level exposure
• Safety
• High toxicity, in general
• High potential for health problems, if
  uncontrolled
• Trade
• Some are highly regulated internationally
• Potential for trade problems

High consumer awareness
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Examples of environmental contaminants

• Heavy metals
• cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic, tin
• Industrial Chemicals
• polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins,
• polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
  herbicides
• Radionuclides
• uranium, radiostrontium

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Processing contaminants

• Chemicals which migrate from packaging
• plastics recycled, paper, ceramics, glass,
  metals, wood, textiles, waxes, phthallates, vinyl
  chloride, semicarbazide
• Chemicals formed during production
• acrylamide in starch foods, chloropropanols in
  soy sauce, heterocyclic amines in grilled meat

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Food Processing ContaminantsIssues for
Consideration

• Exposure
• Low level exposure common
• Presence is not easily controlled
• Safety
• Low toxicity, in general
• Low potential for health problems
• Trade
• Little regulation internationally
• Potential for trade problems

High media awareness in Western press
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Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals

• Chemicals of concern
• Pesticides residues from overuse, misuse or
• aerial spraying etc.
• Veterinary chemical residues
• 3. Antibiotics as growth promoters

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Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Issues for
Consideration

• Exposure
• Widespread use in agriculture
• Potential for misuse / overuse
• Residues are difficult to eliminate
• Safety
• High toxicity, in general
• High potential for health problems
• Trade
• Highly regulated internationally
• Potential trade problems

No perceived benefit to consumers High level of
consumer mistrust
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Naturally Occurring Toxins- examples

• Mycotoxins
• aflatoxins (corn)
• ochratoxin (wheat, corn, dried fruit, wine)
• ergot (grains)
• patulin (apple juice)
• phomopsin (lupins)
• Fusarium toxins (grains)
• Marine toxins
• ciguatera (fish)
• PSP, ASP, NSP, DSP (shellfish)
• Pyrollizidine alkaloids (honey and grains)

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Naturally-Occurring ToxinsIssues for
Consideration

• Exposure
• Relatively common in foods, but not always
  recognized
• Safety
• High toxicity, in general
• Low / high potential for health problems
• Trade
• Growing interest internationally
• Potential for trade problems

No benefit to consumers
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Nutrients/Functional Food Ingredients Issues for
Consideration

• Exposure
• Potential for misuse and/or overuse
• Safety
• Low toxicity, in general
• Efficacy versus safety
• Not beneficial for all consumers

Consumer expectations
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Chemical risk assessments provide

• A basis for national food standards
• consumer safety
• 2. Understanding of how international (Codex) and
  other national standards are derived
• influence international standards
• understand the basis for national
  standards

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Priorities for individual countries depend on

• Consumer concerns
• National food safety issues
• Availability of international reviews
• 4. Trade matters