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Chemical Contaminants in Food

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Safe or Not Safe

Abstract

In Western societies today, the issue of food consumption has evolved from a relatively short chain of trading between producer and consumer to a complex chain of different parties. Today, food consumption includes large-scale production, time-efficient handling, transport, and packaging of food. Before the different food items reach consumers, many different steps, persons, and industrial processes have occurred that in many respects may alter the composition of food. However, food is not only an industrial sector but a source of well-being, joy, and depending on the consumption pattern, a source of health or disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ingemar Pongratz

Authors
  1. Ingemar Pongratz
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  2. Katarina Pettersson
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  3. Malin Hedengran Faulds
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ingemar Pongratz .

Glossary

Bisphenol A:

A chemical often used in different plastics

Chemical Contaminant:

Often referred to as trace amounts of man-made industrial or residual chemicals present in food

Dioxin:

Highly toxic Environmental pollutant

Furan:

Closely related to TCDD with similar properties

Nuclear receptors:

Proteins that mediate the biological effects of hormones

Plasticizer:

A chemical used in plastic

Teratogenic:

A chemical compound capable of inducing birth defects

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Pongratz, I., Pettersson, K., Faulds, M.H. (2011). Chemical Contaminants in Food. In: Safe or Not Safe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7868-4_3

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