Detection and Risk Assessment of Undesirable Chemical Residues in Food

Dear Colleagues,

Food safety and testing analysis is an important method in food, chemistry, and the environment research. The dietary exposure to undesirable chemical residues in food may have adverse effects on humans’ health. Hence, the analysis, measurement, and risk assessment of these chemical pollutants are a prominent topic in food science and should continue to receive comprehensive attention. These undesirable chemical residues include, but are not limited to: exogenous pollutants (such as pesticides, veterinary drugs, fungal toxins, bacterial toxins, microplastics, plasticizers, heavy metals, benzopyrenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, food additives and processing aids, illegal additives, etc.), endogenous toxins (such as aquatic products endogenous toxins, plant natural toxins, allergens, etc.), and hazardous substances generated during food processing (such as heterocyclic amines, chloropropanols, acrylamide, advanced glycation end products, etc.). A series of toxic reactions in the body may be triggered by long-term dietary exposure to these chemical toxins, such as liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, intestinal toxicity and gut microbiota disorder, reproductive toxicity, endocrine disrupting effects, neurotoxicity, and teratogenic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. It can be seen that the detection, risk assessment, and control of these undesirable chemical residues play a crucial role in ensuring food safety and humans’ health.

At present, the analysis and detection of chemical residues in food mainly involve the electrochemical method, spectroscopy, chromatography, mass spectrometry, antigen–antibody method, nucleic acid method, and biosensor method. Whether it is a classic or new approach, the ultimate goal is to efficiently, sensitively, quickly, accurately, and repeatably detect possible residual pollutants from the complex food matrix in an environmentally friendly way, so as to provide accurate data support for subsequent dietary exposure level and food safety risk assessments.

Under the global vision of “One Health”, the impact of diet on humans’ health is particularly prominent, especially the toxic and harmful substances in food, which are unpopular because of their toxic effects and are also indicators of food safety and quality control. This has a vital impact on human survival and development rights. We evaluate the food safety risks of chemical residues in order to alert and remind food producers, public consumers, and government authorities that hazards in food must be strictly controlled and regulated. Of course, this progress has also provided new challenges and opportunities for the analysis, detection, and safety risk assessment of food chemical residues. The emergence of emerging foods and emerging chemical contaminants indicates that colleagues in the field of food science need to constantly develop new research methods.

Therefore, this Special Issue welcomes the submission of manuscripts related to the theme of "Detection and Risk Assessment of Undesirable Chemical Residues in Food".

Dr. Fangwei Yang
Dr. Yahui Guo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• food analysis and detection
• food contaminant
• undesirable chemical residue
• food toxicology
• food safety risk assessment
• rapid determination
• foodborne pollutant and hazard
• qualitative and quantitative identification
• efficient and sensitive screening
• dietary exposure