Chapter 22 – Chemical Intoxications

In this chapter, the potential hazards associated with manufactured chemicals in foods will be discussed. Of course, not all foodborne disease outbreaks of chemical etiology will be reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Reporting is not mandated. Some of the illnesses are either mild and short-lived or difficult to ascribe to particular manufactured chemicals in foods. Thus incomplete reporting of acute intoxications associated with foodborne chemicals of manufactured origin is a certainty. Also the CDC does not attempt to define cause-and-effect relationships between manufactured chemicals in foods and chronic diseases, such as cancer.