Food and Chemical Safety

The Committee on Food and Chemical Safety promotes a science-based determination of the chemical safety of foods to support the advancement of public health.

How this committee operates:

The Food and Chemical Safety Committee focuses on many different issues related to the safety of the food supply. To deliver output and impact, the committee works in subgroups focused on specific areas of food and chemical safety. Explore the work of the Committees below.

Areas of Work

Food Allergens Next Generation Risk Assessment Mycotoxins Heavy Metals

Food Allergens

Food allergies affect a significant number of children and adults in the US and globally. Potential exposure to food allergens is currently communicated using ambiguous, unhelpful statements such as “may contain” or “packaged in a facility that also processes”. The committee supported the first study of its kind to model peanut allergen dose-responses based on US clinical tests and estimate thresholds of peanut protein that trigger an adverse reaction. The use of allergen response thresholds has the potential to significantly improve food labeling with measurable benefits to allergic individuals (read the project description here and the publication here).

The Committee was a co-sponsor of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report Finding a Path to Safety in Food Allergy.

Next Generation Risk Assessment

New Approach Methodologies (NAMs): Risk assessments of some food substances have been shifting to adopt high-throughput, non-animal method strategies for demonstrating safety. These methods, along with new in vitro, in silico and powerful computer modeling tools, are called NAMs. IAFNS efforts focus on available safety assessments of food substances to identify classes of food substances that have leveraged NAMs data to support a regulatory approval. This would include a review of safety determinations by the U.S. FDA in its publicly available GRAS database, as well as those from the European Food Safety Authority.
Evidence-Based Assessment of Potential Carcinogens in Human Diets: Risk assessment of chemicals that are potentially carcinogenic in humans often relies on extrapolation from bioassays. There is a growing belief in the scientific community that evidence-based risk assessment can replace historical approaches. This project will first categorize potential exposure and mode of action scenarios and then be followed by the development of a framework based on sectoral examples.
Exposure Assessment for Food Contaminants Through Implementation of Probabilistic Modeling: Toxicological exposure assessments generally rely on deterministic approaches utilizing conservative inputs. Probabilistic assessments can refine deterministic assessments and better account for exposure variability and uncertainty. This project will analyze the current state of exposure modeling by regulatory agencies and highlight the value of integrating probabilistic exposure assessments into regulatory frameworks. It will also address factors that hinder adoption of probabilistic exposure models.
New Methodologies for Tiered Risk Assessment Using The RISK21 Approach: Programs such ToxCast have generated large amounts of in vitro high‒throughput screening (HTS) data while leaving a gap for best approaches for interpretation and use of this data. To fill this gap, case studies were conducted on two indirect food additive chemicals: sodium (2-pyridylthio)-N-oxide and dibutyltin dichloride. This work highlights the potential utility of the RISK21 approach for interpretation of the ToxCast HTS data, as well as the challenges involved in integrating in vitro HTS data into safety assessments. Access the full publication

Mycotoxins

Deoxynivalenol (DON), a mycotoxin that infects cereal grains, causes adverse gastrointestinal immunotoxic effects. A recent study examined the impact of recent Codex guidelines on maximum allowable DON levels on global wheat trade and potential global health effects. Stricter DON standards drive developing nations to export their best quality grains and keep more heavily contaminated foods for domestic consumption, resulting in higher mycotoxin exposure. As such, the guidelines may lead to unintended negative health outcomes in developing nations.

Access publications below:

Risk Assessment of DON exposure in wheat
Risk-Based Approach to Mycotoxin Mitigation
Global What Trade and Codex Guidelines for DON

Heavy Metals

A Framework for Heavy Metal Exposure Reduction in Human Diets -- Heavy metals (also referred to as toxic elements) such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic are widely present in the environment due to natural occurrence (e.g., in agricultural soils) and anthropomorphic activities. Heavy metals can sometimes unavoidably enter the food supply from various routes such as soil, water and air, as well as agricultural practices. Aligned with FDA’s ‘Closer to Zero’ initiative for reducing toxic elements in foods for babies and infants, the committee has launched two complementary research projects that aim to develop a framework for reducing exposure to heavy metals in foods. Framework elements will include metal/commodity prioritization, concentration ranges, exposure assessments, agricultural practices, and current and future mitigation options along the production and supply chains.
Review of Regulatory Reference Values and Background Levels for Heavy Metals in the Human Diet -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified dietary exposure to heavy metals as a public health concern, focusing particularly on arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. One way to assess exposure risk is to compare established safe exposure limits (reference values) with current population-based dietary background levels. In a recent paper, information on reference values and dietary background exposure were quickly evaluated and updated. These new regulatory and consumption levels inform a novel, interactive, web-based tool that can be used for screening-level assessments of potential risks of heavy metals in foods and ingredients.
Metal Dietary Exposure Screening Tool (MDEST) -- This tool is "designed to be used by risk assessors/managers to rapidly evaluate potential public health risk when confronted with the detection of select heavy metals in foods and food ingredients." The heavy metals of interest are arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury. The Committee prioritized the development of a heavy metal screening tool to provide additional context of risk to exposure of five heavy metals found in raw food ingredients. It is important to note, this tool is only one part of a comprehensive decision making process. The tool as well as related case studies and a manuscript are available here.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Abbott Nutrition
ADM
Cargill, Incorporated
Campbell Soup
Conagra Brands
General Mills, Inc.
The Hershey Company
International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.
Keurig Dr Pepper
Kraft Heinz Company
Mondelēz International

ACADEMIC ADVISOR
Norbert Kaminski, PhD, Michigan State University

GOVERNMENT LIAISONS
Suzanne Fitzpatrick, PhD, DABT
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Randolph Duverna, PhD
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Food Safety & Inspection Service Office of Public Health Service

Katie Weyrauch
U.S Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service

Shoushan Steve Zeng, PhD

U.S Department of Agriculture

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Louis D'Amico, PhD
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development

Join Us!

Projects Supported by the Committee:

iafns Review of EU Novel Food submissions and US GRAS Petitions to identify opportunities for use of New Approach Methodologies for safety determinations of food substances

Review of EU Novel Food submissions and US GRAS Petitions to identify opportunities for use of New Approach Methodologies for safety determinations of food substances

Heavy Metals in US Foods: Exposure Assessment by Age Group and Mitigation Strategies

A Framework for Heavy Metal Prioritization and Mitigation for Reducing Metal Intake: Rice and Spinach Case Studies

Advancing Exposure Assessment for Food Contaminants Through Implementation of Probabilistic Modeling

Development of a Research Framework for Evidence-Based Assessment of Potential Carcinogens in Human Diets

Updating the Metal Dietary Exposure Screening Tool

Assessing Human Health Impacts of Global Adoption of Codex Deoxynivalenol (DON) Guidelines

Evaluation of the Dose-Response for Peanut Allergen

Evaluating the Applicability of Read-Across Tools and High-Throughput Screening Data for Food Relevant Chemicals

Comparison and Analysis of Toxcast Data with In Vivo Data for Food-Relevant Compounds Using The Risk21 Approach

Evaluation of Arsenic-Induced Intracytoplasmic Inclusions

Evaluating the Association between Dietary Exposure to Inorganic Arsenic on Health Outcomes for the US Population

An Approach to Standardize the Concepts of Low Dose and Nonmonotonic Dose Response in Toxicological Research and Regulatory Science

Toxicology and Risk Assessment of Chemical Mixtures

Evaluation of Food-Relevant Chemicals in ToxCast Phase II

Publications

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Journal Articles

Measurement Methods to Evaluate Engineered Nanomaterial Release From Food Contact Materials

Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 2014

This article is one of a series of 4 that report on a task of the NanoRelease Food Additive project of the Intl. Life Science Inst. Center for Risk Science Innovation and Application to identify, evaluate, and develop methods that are needed to confidently detect, characterize, and quantify intentionally produced engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) released from food along the alimentary tract.

Methods to Evaluate Uptake of Engineered Nanomaterials by the Alimentary Tract

Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 2014

This article is one of a series of 4 that report on a task of the NanoRelease Food Additive project of the International Life Science Institute Center for Risk Science Innovation and Application to identify, evaluate, and develop methods that are needed to confidently detect, characterize, and quantify intentionally produced engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) released from food along the alimentary tract.

Dietary Acrylamide and Human Cancer: A Systematic Review of Literature

Nutrition and Cancer, 2014

This is a publication of the work of the 2010 Food and Chemical Safety Committee Summer Fellow.

Measurement of Nanomaterials in Foods: Integrative Consideration of Challenges and Future Prospects

ACS Nano, 2014

To improve understanding of risk and benefit, analytical methods are needed to identify what materials, new or traditional, are “nanorelevant” with respect to biological interaction and/or uptake during alimentary tract transit.

Insights and Perspectives on Emerging Inputs to Weight of Evidence Determinations for Food Safety: Workshop Proceedings

International Journal of Toxicology, 2013

Proceedings from the Weight of Evidence Workshop were published in the November/December 2013 issue of the International Journal of Toxicology.

Events

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2020

IAFP 2020 Annual Meeting

October 26, 2020 – October 28, 2020

Virtual, USA

Each year, the International Association for Food Protection hosts an Annual Meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe. IAFNS is supporting four sessions at the 2020 IAFP Annual Meeting.

IAFNS Virtual Symposium on Risk Assessment of PFAS in Food

September 2, 2020

Virtual, Symposium

IAFNS is pleased to announce the second session in the symposium “Identifying Science Gaps for Risk Assessment of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Food”. This session will address risk characterization with a focus on exposure routes and toxicology, and will build on the first session on PFAS Analytical Methodology which was held June 23rd.

Virtual Symposium: Science Gaps for Risk Assessment of PFAS in Food

June 23, 2020

Washington, DC, USA

This IAFNS virtual symposium aims to inform risk assessment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in foods and ingredients. The symposium will address analytical methods for PFAS in environmental and food sources, exposure routes from foods, known toxicity mechanisms and knowledge gaps.

How this committee operates: