POLLUTANTS FROM ENVIRONMENT ENTERING INTO THE FOODSTUFFS: A REVIEW

Abstract

There has been a growing movement in recent years to eat organic foods instead of traditional foods. This development is largely attributed to fears about the possible adverse health effects of pesticides, fertilisers, hormones and antibiotics, which are commonly used in the daily processing of foodstuffs. While organic labels prohibit the use of these products, both traditional and organic foodstuffs are likely to be polluted by environmental pollution.The key aim of this analysis was to compare the quantities in organic and traditional food products of a range of environmental contaminants, like polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mycotoxins, trace metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), etc. The findings suggest that the existence of local anthropogenic sources of contamination is, in general, the biggest concern concerning the occurrence of environmental toxins, irrespective of their organic or synthetic origin, in food products. Based on this, it has been proposed that environmental contamination of both traditional and organic foods must be controlled.Finally, based on the possible environmental degradation of these ingredients, the safety attributes that have been widely assigned to organic foods may be doubtful.