Journal
FOOD AND CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGY
Volume 125, Issue -, Pages 370-375Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2019.01.021
Keywords
Organic food; Conventional foodstuffs; Human health; Environmental pollutants; Food origin
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In recent years, there is an increasing trend to consume organic foods instead of the conventional foodstuffs. This tendency is mainly due to the concern raised by the potential adverse health effects derived from the intake of pesticides, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics, which are widely used in regular food production. Although organic label forbids the use of these products, environmental contamination is likely to occur in both, conventional and organic foodstuffs. The main purpose of this review was to compare the levels of a number of environmental pollutants such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mycotoxins, trace elements, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), etc., in organic and conventional food items. The results show that, in general, the presence of nearby anthropogenic sources of pollution is the key issue influencing the occurrence of environmental pollutants in foodstuffs, regardless their organic or conventional origin. Based on this, we suggest that environmental contaminants should be monitored in both conventional and organic foods. Finally, the safety feature, which has been globally attributed to organic foods, might be questionable depending on the potential environmental contamination of these foods.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available