Risk Assessment of Chemicals in Food and Feed: Principles, Applications and Future Perspectives

In the modern world, chemicals are ubiquitous, and humans, animals and species in the environment are exposed to an increasing number, both of anthropogenic and natural origin. Chemical risk assessment in the food and feed safety areas involves a wide range of disciplines and research areas such as chemistry, biology, toxicology and epidemiology, biostatistics and modelling. The purpose of a chemical risk assessment is to quantify chemical exposures from relevant sources and routes of exposure (inhalation, oral, dermal through air, water/food, skin) for a given population or species (exposure assessment), determine safe levels for such chemicals (hazard identification and characterisation) and quantify the risk associated with such exposures (risk characterisation). This chapter aims to introduce the reader to the principles of risk assessment of chemicals in food and feed together with some examples and future perspectives to move towards holistic approaches. Exposure assessment aims to investigate how much of a chemical an organism is exposed to, through the detection and quantification of chemical residues in food and feed matrices (occurrence) and the level of food or feed consumption. Particular emphasis is placed on the need to consider the relevant analytical techniques available and food consumption databases. Hazard identification and characterisation requires the consideration of three key aspects with regards to chemical toxicity: (1) what the body does to a chemical (toxicokinetics), (2) what a chemical does to the body (toxicodynamics) and (3) approaches to derive safe levels of chemicals in humans and animal species. Risk characterisation brings the exposure and hazard dimensions together and provides means to quantify health risks for a given population or species after single and multiple chemical exposures (‘chemical mixtures’). Future perspectives are highlighted to move towards a One Health approach while considering humans, animal species and the environment in an integrated manner.