Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
research groups [12
14] and, together with major stakeholders, efforts are still
ongoing to build greater understanding of acrylamide concerning the mechanism
of its formation in foods, the risks associated for consumers, and possible strategies to
lower acrylamide levels in foodstuffs.
Chemical contamination of any sort is typically covered by government legisla-
tion. Globally, the World Health Organization has put in place a food monitoring
program commonly known as the GEMS/Food Programme [15]. GEMS/Food
informs governments, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and other relevant
institutions on levels and trends of chemical contaminants in food and their contri-
bution to dietary exposure. However, it is up to regional and national bodies and
governments to establish food legislation, which together with continual food
surveillance programs helps reduce food contamination.
In the U.S., food safety is under the control of the U.S. FDA. The Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) [16] provides the FDA with broad regulatory
authority over food that is introduced or delivered for interstate commerce. In
particular, Section 402(a)(1) of the FFDCA states that a food is deemed to be
adulterated if it contains any poisonous or deleterious substances, such as chemical
contaminants, which may ordinarily render it harmful to health. Under the provision
of the FFDCA, the FDA oversees the safety of the U.S. food supply (domestic and
imports), in part, through its monitoring programs for contaminants in food and the
assessment of potential exposure and risk. In January 2011, the Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA) [17] was signed with the aim to ensure the U.S. food
supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to
contamination to preventing it.
In Europe, the basic principles of EU legislation on contaminants were laid out in
the European Law in 1993 [18]. This legislation stipulates that food containing a level
of contaminant that is unacceptable from a public health viewpoint, for example,
toxic, cannot be placed on the market. Maximum limits are set for the contaminants of
greatest concern, either due to their toxicity or due to their potential prevalence in the
food chain. These limits are set on the basis of scienti
-
c advice provided by the
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It is then up to the authorities of an EU
Member State to ensure that they comply with the legislation. For imported food-
stuffs, the country of origin is responsible for compliance, and this is controlled at the
EU borders and by market sampling. In this way, legislation, together with random
sampling and surveillance testing, helps to reduce the frequency of food scares.
Member States that identify a risk as a result of a surveillance exercise can temporarily
suspend or restrict production of products. They then have to notify the EU
Commission and other Member States as to their reasons in order to prevent the
further distribution of tainted food. This is helped by the RASFF (Rapid Alert System
for Food and Feed) that distributes this information rapidly to the EFSA and other
relevant institutions and noti
es these institutions of potential contaminants. Here
again, the need for high-throughput, rapid screening of samples is evident.
Where contaminant identity can be known, for example, NIASs such as packaging
materials, legislation has been easier to put in place. Regulation (EC) No. 1935/
2004 [19] sets out the law on chemical migration from all materials and articles in
