Undesirable substances can be hazardous to health. Based on opinions of international committees specialized in food toxicology, how to define dietary risk for any substance set an acceptable daily intake (ADI). This is the maximum dose of this substance may be ingested daily over a lifetime without risk to health. Reported per kilogram of body weight, this dose is deducted from the maximum dose without detectable adverse effects (DMSE) of the substance determined in the species most appropriate, which is applied by a factor of safety. All substances have no ADI and are classified as “no specific limitation” or “unspecified”. These names reflect a low toxicity so that it is not necessary to specify the dose not exceed.

Another indicator applies particularly to pesticides (but also other pollutants such as mycotoxins) is the maximum residue limit (MRL). The MRL is the maximum concentration of a pollutant (pesticide residues in most cases).

Heavy metals

One of the most famous episodes of heavy metal pollution was found in 1960 in Japan. For 30 years, a chemical factory polluted Minamata Bay in there throwing tons of mercury. Living mainly from fishing, thousands of people around the bay have been poisoned by the compound methylmercury through eating contaminated fish. By a phenomenon of bioconcentration, the mercury is not removed from the body and increase concentration throughout the food chain (the little fish are poisoned by mercury remains in their bodies, larger fish that are going Dining will store a higher concentration of mercury and so on with the end of the food chain … the man as the final consumer).

The victims were suffering from very significant neurological (tingling, loss of muscle strength, coordination problem of motion, joint problems of vision, hearing and abnormal behavior), which were subsequently identified as the disease Minamata.

Since it knows the toxicity of heavy metals, mercury but also lead, cadnium and arsenic (which is actually a metalloid). Their presence and concentration were systematically searched and must be below the regulatory values.

Pesticides

Residues of pesticides, commonly known as pesticides can be hazardous to health. There are national and international standards that define the maximum levels. The texts focus on certain classes of pesticides that can be found in plant foods. These maximum residue limits (MRL) fit according to DMA.