Suchergebnisse

International audience ; Environmental contaminants are substances that originate from diffuse sources and may appear in foods based on their ubiquitous presence in the environment. This paper analyses how maximum levels for environmental contaminants in food were derived by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, by the European Union and by national authorities (USA, Germany). Both the risk assessment process (derivation of tolerable intake values and intake assessment by scientific bodies) and the risk management process (derivation of maximum levels by risk management bodies) are discussed. The different organisations show similar principal approaches and similar numerical values for those maximum levels that are available for the same contaminants in the same food items. For the risk management decision-making, a noticeable lack of transparency is observed in all the investigated systems. Recommendations for harmonisation and improvement are provided for the exposure assessment, for the communication between risk assessment and risk management processes and for improvements for better documentation and transparency of the risk management decision-making processes.