New Hot Paper Comment by Juliane Kleiner

Juliane Kleiner answers a few questions about this month's new hot paper in the field of Agricultural Sciences.

From •>>January 2005

Field: Agricultural Sciences
Article Title: Risk characterisation of chemicals in food and diet
Authors: Renwick, AG;Barlow, SM;Hertz-Picciotto, I;Boobis, AR;Dybing, E;Edler, L;Eisenbrand, G;Greig, JB;Kleiner, J;Lambe, J;Muller, DJG;Smith, MR;Tritscher, A;Tuijtelaars, S;van den Brandt, PA;Walker, R;Kroes, R
Journal: FOOD CHEM TOXICOL
Volume: 41
Page: 1211-1271
Year: SEP 2003
* ILSI Europe, Ave E Mounier 83, Box 6, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium.
* ILSI Europe, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium.
* Univ Dublin Trinity Coll, Inst Biotechnol, Inst European Food Studies, Dublin 2, Ireland.
* Procter & Gamble Serv GmbH, D-65824 Schwalbach Am Taunus, Germany.
* Unilever Res Labs Vlaardingen, Unilever Hlth Inst, NL-3133 AT Vlaardingen, Netherlands.
* Nestle Res Ctr, CH-1000 Lausanne, Switzerland.
* Maastricht Univ, Dept Epidemiol, NL-6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands.
* Univ Surrey, Sch Biomed & Life Sci, Guildford GU2 5XH, Surrey, England.
* Univ Utrecht, Fac Vet Med, IRAS, NL-3508 TD Utrecht, Netherlands.
* Univ Kaiserslautern, Dept Chem Food Chem & Environm Toxicol, D-67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
* Deutsch Krebsforschungszentrum, German Canc Res Ctr, Biostat Unit, D-69009 Heidelberg, Germany.
* Norwegian Inst Publ Hlth, Div Environm Med, N-0403 Oslo, Norway.
* Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Div Med, Clin Pharmacol Sect, London W12 0NN, England.
* Univ Calif Davis, Dept Epidemiol & Prevent Med, Davis, CA 95616 USA.
* Univ Leicester, MRC, Inst Environm & Hlth, Leicester LE1 7DD, Leics, England.
* Univ Southampton, Sch Med, Clin Pharmacol Grp, Southampton SO16 7PX, Hants, England.

Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

“The paper describes the Risk Assessment process and in particular the risk characterization in a very structured way.”

The paper is one of the first papers dealing with risk characterization of chemicals in food and diet in a very detailed and thorough manner. It’s the final part of the "Food Safety in Europe (FOSIE): Risk Assessment of Chemicals in Food and Diet" series of articles.

Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

The paper describes the risk assessment process and in particular the risk characterization in a very structured way. There is a widely accepted and reasonably mature system for the risk characterization of low molecular weight chemicals (e.g., food additives, pesticides, contaminants) and the paper inevitably focuses on these. However the paper goes even farther, as consideration is also given to the application of the risk characterization process to other food categories, i.e., micronutrients and nutritional supplements, macronutrients, and whole foods. The methodology described will be used by many agencies and nationalities that evaluate chemicals in food.

Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

Safety evaluation of chemicals in food and food constituents is of prime importance to the public at large, and the paper describes, in a very detailed way, how such a safety or risk assessment has to be performed and also mentions the gaps in knowledge one still has to elucidate.

How did you become involved in this research?

The paper is the final paper of an EC-funded project and the research was co-coordinated by ILSI Europe, a non-profit organization. More than 100 scientists from academia, government, and industry participated in this activity.

Dr. Juliane Kleiner
Senior Scientific Officer
European Food Safety Authority
Brussels, Belgium

ESI Special Topics, January 2005
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2005/january-05-JulianeKleiner.html