Food Toxicology

Foods contain a myriad of different chemicals - natural substances, additives, and contaminants. Toxicology is the science that sets the limits of safety for exposure to chemicals. With foods, concerns arise regarding those chemicals that might be hazardous when ingested in doses that might exist in foods. Many of the most hazardous chemicals in foods are of natural origin, either normal constituents of the particular food or contaminants arising from the coincident presence of bacteria, mold, or algae. Manmade substances of certain types can also be quite hazardous, especially substances that are not intended for the food supply.