Dioxins in Food Systems: Formation, Transfer, Risk Assessment and Analytical Monitoring

Dioxins are persistent, lipophilic contaminants of continuing concern in food safety because they can form during thermal and industrial processes, redistribute through environmental media, and accumulate in food chains. This review summarizes dioxin formation, transfer into terrestrial and aquatic food systems, occurrence in representative foods, toxic equivalent-based risk assessment, and analytical monitoring. Emphasis is placed on source characteristics, environmental and feed-related transfer routes, contamination patterns in lipid-rich animal-derived foods, interpretation of occurrence data using toxic equivalent values and regulatory limits, and the complementary roles of confirmatory instrumental methods and bioanalytical screening tools. Key challenges include ultra-trace concentrations, complex lipid-rich matrices, high analytical cost, uneven contamination among food categories and regions, and limited identification of contaminants with dioxin-like activity beyond routine target lists. Future work should better connect source emissions, food-chain surveillance, occurrence data, and dietary exposure assessment to support earlier source identification and risk-prioritized control.