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Food analysis and consumer protection

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Abstract

Aspects of food safety and quality control are described, with a focus on consumer protection. On the assumption that there can be no ‘zero-risk’, not only in life generally but even in food, appropriate food control is required in order to assess compliance with labelling (e.g. in the case of functional food) and to ensure the safety of food. People have always been concerned about the safety and quality of the food they eat. Some examples illustrate that there has always been a risk of fraud, since food became a trade object. It is difficult to separate food quality from food safety, as they are interdependent. Analytical methodologies are evolving and reflect the complexity of the subject. Risk assessment is necessary for appropriate risk management. The role of food chemists and analysts is described in this context. It is stressed throughout this paper that food risk management must be based on sound science and fact.

Introduction

As agriculture and food technology have advanced and populations increase, analytical and regulatory problems concerning food have become very complex. They are related to food products of varying quality, novel food, food preservation and fraud. Moreover, production processes for food preservation have become very important due to the need to store food for long periods, to prevent chemical and microbiological deterioration, insect infestation and pathogenic contamination. Fierce competition in a saturated market forces food producers to introduce innovative products to the market at increasingly shorter intervals. The commercial and economical pressure on producers, together with complex distribution of food from the processing plant to distant retail outlets, present food producers with the formidable challenge to maintain food safety. Risks must be minimised in order to prevent health hazards, product losses and litigation.

Consumers now have less understanding of the increasingly complex nature of industrial food processing for a number of reasons. Firstly, food science or even the basics of food hygiene and nutrition are generally not taught sufficiently in schools. Secondly, the majority of consumers have no possibility to visit a modern food factory to see the process. Their reference base on which to judge the quality and safety of all food is in general their home kitchen and their memories of garden-grown fruit and vegetables. Yet, consumers expect a wide range of competitively priced, highly processed and convenient food products of consistently high quality. They expect it to be fresh, good looking, nutritious, wholesome, tasty, and it must primarily and by all means be SAFE! On the other hand, consumers have no direct means for the verification of their expectancies and have to rely completely on the food legislators and enforcement agencies.

Food control is essential both for consumer protection and also for the food industry, which stands to gain consumer confidence. Therefore, food control authorities have a very important role to play, ultimately serving the interests of the whole population and the economy.

Prior to 1940, the control of food was concerned almost totally with microbiological contamination and (judging by today's knowledge, what appears to be crude) fraud, and to a lesser extent with nutritional adequacy. Today food control covers all areas of chemical composition, hygienic aspects, nutritional adequacy and authenticity, but focuses mainly on chemicals in food which are very often present only in minor or trace amounts. There is a tendency to call every chemical compound found—at normal or high levels—a ‘contamination’. It is perhaps useful to point out that not all chemicals in food fall under this category! A large number of additives are intentionally added to food in order to produce a desired positive effect. Clearly, their level has to be maintained within regulated limits. However, since their use is usually self-limiting (for sensorial or physical reasons) very few additives are regulated quantitatively. Nor should they pose a health hazard: their toxicity has been evaluated and only non-critical compounds are permitted.

On the other hand, pesticides and animal drugs may be considered contaminants, although the term ‘residue’ is more appropriate. These substances are ‘left-overs’ from treatment of a plant or an animal to either protect or cure it from disease. Pesticides and animal drugs are biologically highly active substances and the tolerated limits—usually in the low mg/kg range—have a toxicological rather than a technological background.

True chemical contamination of a food can either originate in the formation of a toxic substance by a micro-organism (e.g. mycotoxins from moulds, bacterial toxins)—these are so-called natural toxins—and, of course, through true contamination of food with extraneous chemicals such as PCBs, dioxins, cadmium, lead, etc. Feeding stuff, the prime route to the food chain, represents a major source of contaminants in meat and animal products, the recent dioxin crisis being a prominent example (see below).

Section snippets

Fraud in the food sector

The quality and safety of food has always been the concern of human beings. Ever since food became a trade object, there has always been fraud, i.e. the wilful manipulation of a product for financial gain, despite possible health risks to consumers. Many ancient laws and regulations, recorded in historical documents, bear witness to this; for example:

  • a memorial stone in King Hummarapi's time (Babylon 1750 BC) prohibited the sale of watered-down, overpriced beer;

  • India regulated the adulteration

Risk management

The number of diseases of unknown origin or cause seems to be growing, and some of them are suspected to be food-borne and may be caused by viruses. Much research remains to be done in this area until a firm basis of knowledge has been developed on which to build legislation. Whenever a new contaminant or hazardous organism is detected, the public turns to the politicians to protect their health and legislate. The politicians—the risk managers—then turn to the scientists—the risk assessors—for

Authenticity and food labelling

In addition to the increasing number of food safety regulations on food safety, legislation on authenticity and general quality issues is in continuous expansion. Appropriate control mechanisms must be set up in order to ensure proper implementation of legislation in this filed. Authenticity of food is essential to gain and uphold consumer confidence. Episodes of fraud in food products, e.g. in wine, olive oil, and dairy products, are highly damaging to the economy and reputation of the country

Consumer confidence

Newspapers, television and, in some cases special consumer journals are full of articles on pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, environmental contaminants—in short, ‘chemicals in food’. Media activity forms a broad basis of information which may or may not help to build consumer confidence. It is very difficult to keep this information objective and well balanced as each new discovery of chemical contamination in food (irrespective of its concentration and indeed frequency of occurrence) makes

The role of the food chemist

Food analysis is traditionally the domain of food chemists and analytical chemists, but also veterinary scientists, who are historically responsible for food deriving from animals. Analytical food science has advanced significantly over the last few decades, the main reasons being the availability of advanced techniques (e.g. chromatography and spectrometry), better equipment in control laboratories, plus a greater interest in life sciences of students and also of politicians.

Food chemistry is

Food control

The need for food control is undisputed, and recent history has impressed its necessity at political levels. Every food control agency must ask itself—and carry the political responsibility for this decision—where the real priorities lie in each area of food control and how funds would be spent most efficiently, with the final aim to protect consumers in the best way.

The process of setting priorities in the allocation of money and manpower is anything but simple. Science alone should guide

Aflatoxins—natural toxicants from mould

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi. Their presence in food is a real problem. It can be assumed that about 20% of the total cereal, fruit and vegetable harvest is destroyed by mould, insects and rodents, and therefore there is a significant degree of contamination with fungal metabolites, among which there are many mycotoxins, that can be detected in food products and animal feed imported from developing countries. A major feed contamination occurred in the UK in the early 1960s,

Microbiological hazards in food—the real food safety problem

Food safety experts and enforcement agencies today agree that microbiological spoilage and contamination of food with pathogens represent the most severe and costly health hazards in connection with food (WHO Newsletters). Serious events during the last two decades were the occurrence of Listeria in raw milk soft cheese and the vertical transmission of virulent Salmonellae from chicken to eggs. Tremendous efforts were necessary to ameliorate this situation, including major changes in food

Outlook

In order to ensure consumer protection and to gain consumer confidence, it is essential to base food risk management on sound science and evidence. Consideration of the dose–response relationship is important, since all chemical compounds, whether natural or man-made, are potentially toxic. The statement of Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541): “Sola dosis facit veneum: All Ding sind Gift und nichts ohn' Gift. Allein die Dosis macht, daβ ein Ding kein

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Jacqueline Ryder who revised the manuscript.

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