Food chemistry and chemophobia

Public views of animal testing and alternatives in chemical risk assessment

Next-Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) aims to implement New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) into risk assessment and to rely on new in vivo testing in animals only as a last resort. However, various technical and regulatory hurdles impede their regulatory implementation. Assumptions about the public's expectations could act as barriers to the acceptance of NAMs. This study aimed at investigating public views of animal testing and potential alternatives, namely in vitro and in silico testing. An online survey was conducted (N = 965). The results suggest that people make trade-offs, as they experience negative affect regarding in vivo testing, which partly might explain their openness regarding certain alternatives. In vitro tests were attributed the highest ability to determine harmful effects of chemicals for different endpoints, followed by in vivo and in silico tests. Our results further showed that many people accept chemicals to be only tested with alternatives, with highest acceptance for household consumer products, food contact material or building materials and less accepting for medicines and foods. This article addresses potential challenges that might arise from public perceptions and thus, contributes to the bottom-up initiatives to overcome the hurdles to the implementation of NAMs in regulatory risk assessment.

Trace chemicals in consumer products - Consumers' acceptance before and after receiving information about toxicological principles

Toxicologists face several challenges when communicating with the public about the potential risks of chemical substances in consumer products. However, based on the consumers' scepticism and detachment from the use of chemical substances in the manufacturing of consumer goods, evidence is needed on how this communication can be improved. Hence, the goal of this study was to experimentally check the effect of an informational video on consumers' acceptance of trace chemicals in consumer products, their willingness to purchase and finally, their perception of the dose-response mechanism. For this, an informational video was developed and evaluated in a pre-post online study with a sample of South Korean consumers (N = 600). The results suggest that providing information on toxicological principles increases people's acceptance of trace chemicals in consumer products and their willingness to purchase a consumer product containing trace chemicals. Within the article, implications for practice and ideas for new research avenues are presented.

Modernization of Control of Pathogenic Micro-Organisms in the Food-Chain Requires a Durable Role for Immunoaffinity-Based Detection Methodology-A Review

Food microbiology is deluged by a vastly growing plethora of analytical methods. This review endeavors to color the context into which methodology has to fit and underlines the importance of sampling and sample treatment. The context is that the highest risk of food contamination is through the animal and human fecal route with a majority of foodborne infections originating from sources in mass and domestic kitchens at the end of the food-chain. Containment requires easy-to-use, failsafe, single-use tests giving an overall risk score in situ. Conversely, progressive food-safety systems are relying increasingly on early assessment of batches and groups involving risk-based sampling, monitoring environment and herd/flock health status, and (historic) food-chain information. Accordingly, responsible field laboratories prefer specificity, multi-analyte, and high-throughput procedures. Under certain etiological and epidemiological circumstances, indirect antigen immunoaffinity assays outperform the diagnostic sensitivity and diagnostic specificity of e.g., nucleic acid sequence-based assays. The current bulk of testing involves therefore ante- and post-mortem probing of humoral response to several pathogens. In this review, the inclusion of immunoglobulins against additional invasive micro-organisms indicating the level of hygiene and ergo public health risks in tests is advocated. Immunomagnetic separation, immunochromatography, immunosensor, microsphere array, lab-on-a-chip/disc platforms increasingly in combination with nanotechnologies, are discussed. The heuristic development of portable and ambulant microfluidic devices is intriguing and promising. Tant pis, many new platforms seem unattainable as the industry standard. Comparability of results with those of reference methods hinders the implementation of new technologies. Whatever the scientific and technological excellence and incentives, the decision-maker determines this implementation after weighing mainly costs and business risks.

Chemophobia and knowledge of toxicological principles in South-Korea: perceptions of trace chemicals in consumer products

Many consumer products are manufactured or synthesized from chemicals. However, consumers may be hesitant to purchase consumer products that are perceived as synthetic or derived with chemical substances. Prior studies suggested a preference for chemicals of natural origin and an irrational fear of synthetic chemicals, a phenomenon that is referred to as chemophobia. The aim of this study was two-fold as follows: to (1) investigate the levels of knowledge with respect to toxicological principles, chemophobia, and trust in stakeholders in South Korea and (2) experimentally test the effect of information provision on acceptance and willingness-to-buy for the specific case of trace chemicals in consumer products. For this purpose, an online survey and experiment was conducted with consumers in South Korea. Data suggested that in South Korea chemophobia correlated with an individual's knowledge regarding toxicological principles. Accordingly, a small intervention providing information on the dose-response mechanism increased consumers' acceptance of the presence of trace chemicals and subsequent willingness to purchase the products in this study. In conclusion, this investigation stresses the importance of educating the public regarding basic principles of toxicology to avoid chemophobia, while simultaneously discussing other factors that need to be taken into account such as attitudes and trust in communicators.

Addressing Chemophobia: Informational versus affect-based approaches

This study investigated the effect of two communication strategies (informational and affect-based) in reducing chemophobia, the irrational fear of chemicals. In an online experiment, participants (N = 448) were randomly assigned to one of three groups ("control", "knowledge", or "affect" group). The following dependent variables were assessed: chemophobia, knowledge of basic toxicological principles, affect towards chemicals, benefit perception of the use of chemicals, and preference for natural substitutes in consumer products. The results showed that only the informational approach, which conveys knowledge of basic toxicological principles, significantly decreased chemophobia and the preference for natural substitutes in consumer products. The affect-based approach significantly increased positive affect towards chemicals and the benefit perception of their use, but did not decrease chemophobia. This suggested that the provision of relevant information about basic toxicological principles is a more effective strategy than merely addressing laypeople's affect towards chemicals to reduce chemophobia. Relevant knowledge could be taught in schools or disseminated by toxicologists and scientists who are trusted by the public.

The Challenges of Eliminating or Substituting Antimicrobial Preservatives in Foods

Consumers' criteria for evaluating food safety have evolved recently from considering the food's potential to cause immediate physical harm to considering the potential long-term effects that consumption of artificial ingredients, including antimicrobial preservatives, would have on health. As bacteriostatic and bactericidal agents to prevent microbial spoilage, antimicrobials not only extend shelf life, but they also enhance the product's safety. Antimicrobials and their levels that may be used in foods are specified by regulatory agencies. This review addresses the safety of antimicrobials and the potential consequences of removing those that are chemically synthesized or replacing them with antimicrobials from so-called natural sources. Such changes can affect the microbiological safety and spoilage of food as well as reduce shelf life, increase wastage, and increase the occurrence of foodborne illnesses.