Alternative toxicological methods for establishing residue definitions applied for dietary risk assessment of pesticides in the European Union

Consumers are constantly exposed to trace levels of residues present in food commodities, arising from the use of pesticides. For this reason, assessing the risk caused by pesticide residues present in food requires not only identification and toxicological properties assessment of the active substance, but also of its metabolites, isomers, and degradates. This requires the use of many laboratory animals. On the other hand, currently there is an emphasis on minimizing the use of animals in toxicological research. This review article presents current activities of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) aiming to replace at least a part of toxicological tests on substances of unknown toxicity with the alternative methods. Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) and Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) can be used for this purpose in procedure of establishing residue definitions applied for dietary risk assessment.