Chemical Hazards in Food

Things like pesticides, harmful chemicals, and dyes can pose a chemical danger to food.

We can break these chemical hazards into three categories:

 

  1. Chemicals that naturally occur in food.

(Hemagglutinins found in red kidney beans or mushroom poisons etc.)

 

  1. Chemicals that might be formed when some substances are used more than allowed used during the food production or react with other materials.

(Sodium nitrite, nitrosamines, colorings, preservatives, pesticides, fungicides etc.)

 

  1. Chemicals that might accidentally contaminate food during processing due to technical errors. (Cleaning and disinfection agents, poisonous substances from packaging materials etc.)

Chemical Hazards

  • Pesticide contamination
  • Cleaning substances and disinfectants
  • Packaging chemicals
  • Oil contamination
  • Heavy metal contamination
  • Veterinary drug residues
  • Nitrite, nitrate, urea

Sources of Hazards

  • Using pesticides on raw materials
  • Not rinsing well enough after cleaning
  • Additives used in packaging production
  • Machine oils used on equipment
  • Water, environment, soil
  • Drugs used for treatment
  • Water