We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Toxicological impacts and human health risk assessment of emerging contaminants in food systems
AI summary Read the abstract
Emerging food contaminants including micro- and nanoplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceutical residues present complex toxicological challenges due to low-dose mixture effects acting across endocrine, immune, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental pathways. Advancing human health risk assessment requires probabilistic dietary exposure modeling, harmonized international frameworks, and mixture toxicology methods that go beyond single-contaminant analysis.
Emerging contaminants (ECs) in food systems, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), micro-/nanoplastics (MNPs), pharmaceutical residues, endocrine-disrupting additives, and novel processing by-products, pose complex toxicological and public-health challenges because they occur at low concentrations, often as mixtures, and may act via endocrine, immune, metabolic, or neurodevelopmental pathways. Contemporary human health risk assessment (HHRA) increasingly integrates (i) traditional hazard identification and dose-response modelling (ii) dietary exposure reconstruction using total diet studies and probabilistic models and (iii) mixture frameworks and uncertainty analysis. International guidance from WHO and Codex defines a harmonised risk-assessment workflow, while European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has expanded methodologies for combined exposures and has established health-based guidance values (HBGVs) for key contaminant groups such as PFAS based on immunotoxicity endpoints.
More Papers Like This
Risk Assessment of Chemical Mixtures in Foods: A Comprehensive Methodological and Regulatory Review
AI summary Read the abstract
This review synthesizes 15 years of methodological and regulatory progress in cumulative dietary risk assessment for chemical mixtures, finding that dose addition is now the default model for similarly acting contaminants across major food safety institutions. The framework is directly applicable to assessing combined exposure to plastic-associated chemicals such as plasticizers, additives, and microplastic-sorbed contaminants as part of broader dietary xenobiotic cocktails.
Risk Assessment of Chemical Mixtures in Foods: A Comprehensive Methodological and Regulatory Review
AI summary Read the abstract
This comprehensive review traces 15 years of advances in assessing the health risks of dietary chemical mixtures — including pesticides, PFAS, phthalates, and mycotoxins — outlining how regulatory bodies now apply dose-addition models, probabilistic frameworks, and human biomonitoring to evaluate combined exposures from food more accurately.
Invisible Threats in Food Systems: Emerging Contaminants, Exposure Pathways and Safety Concerns
AI summary Read the abstract
This study examined the resilience of anaerobic digestion processes to microplastic contamination, assessing whether plastic particles affect methane production and microbial community function. Results indicate that anaerobic digesters can tolerate certain microplastic loads but may experience reduced efficiency at higher concentrations.
Microplastics, PFAS, and Pharmaceutical Residues as Emerging Contaminants in the Global Food Chain
AI summary Read the abstract
This chapter reviews how microplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceutical residues enter the global food chain through industrial discharge, agricultural practices, and environmental runoff, emphasising their persistence and bioaccumulation. It evaluates the human health implications and regulatory challenges of managing these co-occurring emerging contaminants.
A comprehensive review of emerging environmental contaminants of global concern
AI summary Read the abstract
This review comprehensively examined emerging contaminants including pharmaceuticals, PFAS, endocrine disruptors, and micro- and nano-plastics across environmental matrices, discussing their sources, environmental behavior, toxicological effects, and detection techniques. Advanced methods including LC-MS/MS, ELISA, PCR, and biosensors were highlighted as essential for identifying and quantifying these substances, with ECs implicated in endocrine disruption, antibiotic resistance, and bioaccumulation threatening food safety and public health.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.