Dr Menaal KaushalJR- III

Department of SPMSN Medical College, Agra

Chemicals in

Your Food!

Chemicals in Food

Regulated

Food

Ingredients

Food Chain

Residues

Contaminants

in Food&

Feed

Food Additives

Food Flavorings

Emulsifiers

Acidity

Regulators

Stabilizers

More????

Aspartame:

ADI= 40- 50 mg/kg/day

Aspartame

Phenylalanine

Aspartic acid

Menthol

In Rats, Aspartame caused Leukemia and

Lymphomas. Studies have linked human

Preterm Labor, Multiple myeloma and brain

tumors with Aspartame

Acceptable Daily Intake= Amount of a

substance that people can consume on a daily

basis during their whole life without any

appreciable risk to health

DKP

Chemicals in Food

Regulated

Food

Ingredients

Food Chain

Residues

Contaminants

in Food&

Feed

Food Contact

Material Feed Additives

Fertilizers&

Pesticides

Food Contact Material Gets transferred into the food through

Migration/ Leeching

Migration depends upon:

Properties of Contact material

Type of Food

Temperature at which packed an maintained

Food Contact Material may be:

Bisphenol A in Plastic

Non Plastic

Active and Intelligent Packing Substances

Bisphenol A (BPA)

BPA effects the mammary glands,

reproductive, metabolic, neurobehavioural and

immune systems

EU has significantly reduced the new ADI for

BPA from 50µg/kg/day to 4µg/kg/day

BPA

Epoxy resins

Polycarbonate

Non Plastic Contacts

Inks used in printing the labels contain:

Benzophenone, 4-methylbenzophenone

and

Isopropyl thioxanthone (ITX)

Foods packed in Glass Jars have:

Semicarbazide

Epoxides

The Tolerable Daily Intake is 0.03mg/kg/day

Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI)

ADIs relate to chemical substances which are

deliberately added to a product or ingredient

A Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) is an estimate of the

quantity of a chemical contaminant to which we may

be exposed through environmental contamination,

and Exposure to such contaminants whilst not

desirable may not be avoidable as some may be

found in foods as a result of environmental pollution

TDI= amount of chemical in food which can be

ingested daily over a lifetime without posing a

significant risk to health.

Feed Additives

What is happening with the animals whose

products we consume?

Milch animalsFor Meat Animals

Natural Feed: Gossypol

But pesticide laden

Hormones: Steroids, Sex

hormones

Hormones: Oxytocin,

Estrogen, rBGH;

The story behind

banning DES

Unnatual Feeds: Methyl

Mercuryis: Fishmeal to

cattle; MBM

Antibiotics

Pesticides Soil half-lives should be in the range of days to

weeks. But, pesticide residues are found

ubiquitously in the environment in ng/liter to μg/liter

concentrations

Surveys of groundwater in Developed countries

detected 10 to 20 substances above the

permissible limits (0.01 µg/dL): Most of the

pesticides were no longer in use and about 10-

20% were stable compounds

Some transformational products are worst off:

(Eco toxicologically Relevant Products)

Hydrophobic Pesticides:

Persistent, bio-accumulable

Strongly bound to soil

e.g.: Organochlorine, DDT, endosulfan, endrin,heptachlor, lindane.

Most of them are now banned in agriculture but

their residues are still present:

e.g. Detection of chloridazon products (first marketedin 1964) in surface and groundwater, or tolylfluanid

(first marketed in 1971).

Polar Pesticides: Herbicides, carbamates, fungicides and some

organophosphorus insecticide.

They can be moved from soil by runoff and

leaching, thereby constituting a problem for the

supply of drinking water to the population

The Cotton Belt of Punjab has turned into the

Cancer Belt of Punjab (Malwa Belt: Bathinda,

Mukatsar, Mansa, Ferozepore, Moga, Barnala,

Faridkot and Sangrur)

Effects of Pesticides on

Soil: Reduces populations of beneficial soil microorganism

Negative impact in the available NPK from soil.

Pesticides destroy Dehydrogenases and Soil

phosphatases and ureases help in the mineralization

and nitrification processes of organic substrates

Enzymes in soils originate from animal, plant and

microbial sources and the resulting soil biological

activity includes the metabolic processes of all these

organisms.

Which are the Foods Most

Contaminated by Pesticides? Beef, Pork, Poultry

Milk, Cheese, Butter

Strawberries, Raspberries, Cherries

Apples and Pears

Peaches Grapes, Pepper and Tomatoes: Peeling

Does not Help

Potatoes

Spinach and Green Leafies

So What to do?

Spray Pesticides within the Maximum Residual

Levels (MRL)

MRL= Upper Legal Levels of a concentration of

pesticide residues in or on food or feed, aiming at

the lowest consumer exposure.

Wash thoroughly the raw fruits, vegetables&

grains in Running Water

Prefer Organic Foods atleast for the Thin Peel

Fruits and Vegetables

Fertilizers Any substance containing one or more recognized

plant nutrient(s) which is used for its plant nutrient

content and which is designed for use or claimed

to have value in promoting plant growth”

Macronutrient

Fertilizers

Manufactured from

Recycled Industrial

Waste

Micronutrient

Fertilizers

Rich in Dioxins and PCB

Manufactured from

Virgin Ores

Dioxins& Poly-chlorinated Biphenyls:

Persistent Environmental Pollutants

(POP)

By-products of industrial processes e.g. smelting,

chlorine bleaching of paper pulp and the

manufacturing of some herbicides and

pesticides.

Dioxins accumulate in Animal Fat

Dioxins are highly toxic carcinogenic compounds

and can cause reproductive and developmental

problems, damage the immune system, interfere

with hormones.

Chemicals in Food

Regulated

Food

Ingredients

Food Chain

Residues

Contaminants

in Food&

Feed

Environmental

Pollutants MetalsProcess

Contaminants

Thank you