Food contaminants

With the increasing use of a large variety of chemicals, opportunities for contamination of food are becoming greater. Food may be involved following some accidental occurrence or from more general environmental contamination. Three examples are given: an outbreak of paralysis in Morocco involved 10,000 people who had ingested food adulterated with triorthocresyl phosphate; an epidemic of jaundice in London followed the contamination of flour with an epoxy resin hardener; organic mercury poisoning in an Arab country involved more than 6000 people who had eaten bread made from grain treated with a methyl mercury fungicide. The hazard which may arise from heavy metal accumulation in the body is discussed.