Analysis of Food Contaminants, Residues, and Chemical Constituents of Concern. In: Nielsen SS, editor. Food Analysis. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2017. pp. 573-97. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45776-5_33]

Comparative study between the top six heavy metals involved in the EU RASFF notifications over the last 23 years

From the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) database, a total of 4728 notifications regarding the six most frequently notified heavy metals (i.e., arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, and nickel) were tracked from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2022, and analyzed based on year, notification classification, notifying countries, countries of origin, product types, product categories, risk decision, and action taken. Human risk assessment owing to consumption of mercury- and cadmium-contaminated seafood was estimated as well. Results revealed that the highest numbers of notifications were on mercury (36.6%), cadmium (25.1%), and lead (14.1%). Interestingly, the number of total notifications was at its peak between 2011 and 2014; from 2015 onward, it started to decrease considerably. Alert, border rejection, and information notifications represented 29.6%, 21.9%, and 48.5% of the total notifications, respectively. Chromium and nickel resulted in 33.8% and 23.3% of border rejection notifications, respectively. About 52.0% of the alert notifications were on mercury. Serious notifications represented 34.9% of the total notifications. Mercury and cadmium notifications accounted for 54.9% and 25.8% of serious notifications, respectively. Italy was the most notifying country, recording the highest number of notifications on cadmium (29.0%), mercury (52.6%), chromium (81.0%), and nickel (78.7%). China was the most notified origin country with regards to arsenic (18.7%), cadmium (12.8%), lead (27.6%), chromium (71.2%), and nickel (66.9%) notifications. Notifications on food, food contact materials (FCM), and feed represented 71.9%, 23.4%, and 4.7%, respectively, of the total notifications. About 91.5% of mercury notifications were on fish and fish products; 24.3% of arsenic notifications related to fruits and vegetables; and 20.1% of cadmium notifications corresponded to cephalopods and products thereof. Notified products were largely withdrawn from the markets according to arsenic (20.3%), lead (17.9%), and mercury (18.0%) notifications and re-dispatched because of cadmium (20.5%), chromium (42.1%), and nickel (49.5%) notifications. The target hazard quotient (THQ) values for mercury in swordfish, sharks, and tuna and cadmium in squid were all also below the threshold value of 1, implying that there is no significant risk for consumers. Overall, media coverage of RASFF alerts and actions may raise awareness of heavy metal contamination among the general public and industry professionals. The primary dietary advice of our study is to stay away from species with high mercury contents. Also, identifying the most dangerous heavy metals (HMs) and the most polluting products can help researchers prioritize their efforts in finding sustainable solutions for them.

Notifications on Pesticide Residues in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF)

Pesticides are commonly used to protect plants against various pests and to preserve crops, but their residues can be harmful for human health. They are the third most widely reported hazard category in the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). The purpose of the study was to identify the most frequently notified pesticides in the RASFF in 1981–2020, considering: year, notification type, product category, origin country, notifying country, notification basis, distribution status and action taken. The data from the RASFF database was processed using: filtering, transposition, pivot tables and then subjected to cluster analysis: joining (tree clustering) and two-way joining methods. Pesticides were most commonly reported in fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices following border controls and rejections. The products usually came from India or Turkey and were not placed on the market or were not distributed and then destroyed. The effectiveness of the European Union border posts in terms of hazards detection and mutual information is important from the point of view of protecting the internal market and ensuring public health. It is also necessary to increase the awareness of pesticide users through training and the activity of control authorities in the use of pesticides.

Nanomaterials Enabled and Bio/Chemical Analytical Sensors for Acrylamide Detection in Thermally Processed Foods: Advances and Outlook

Acrylamide, a food processing contaminant with demonstrated genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, and reproductive toxicity, is largely present in numerous prominent and commonly consumed food products that are produced by thermal processing methods. Food regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) and European Union Commission regulations have disseminated various acrylamide mitigation strategies in food processing practices. Hence, in the wake of such food and public health safety efforts, there is a rising demand for economic, rapid, and portable detection and quantification methods for these contaminants. Since conventional quantification techniques like liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods are expensive and have many drawbacks, sensing platforms with various transduction systems have become an efficient alternative tool for quantifying various target molecules in a wide variety of food samples. Therefore, this present review discusses in detail the state of robust, nanomaterials-based and other bio/chemical sensor fabrication techniques, the sensing mechanism, and the selective qualitative and quantitative measurement of acrylamide in various food materials. The discussed sensors use analytical measurements ranging from diverse and disparate optical, electrochemical, as well as piezoelectric methods. Further, discussions about challenges and also the potential development of the lab-on-chip applications for acrylamide detection and quantification are entailed at the end of this review.