Environmental Contaminants in Food

This report presents the major findings of an OTA assessment of Federal and State efforts to deal with the environmental contamination of food.Undertaken at the request of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, the study examines both regulatory approaches and monitoring strategies for coping with contaminated food.The assessment is concerned with chemical and radioactive contaminants that inadvertently find their way into the human food supply.To bring the scope of inquiry within manageable bounds, we excluded naturally occurring toxins such as fungal and microbial toxins.The Office of Technology Assessment was assisted by two advisory panels of scientists and representatives of public interest groups, agriculture, the chemical industry, fisheries, and State and foreign governments.The Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency each designated staff members to attend panel meetings, provide background information, and review draft reports, Background papers were commissioned concerning the scientific aspects of detecting and regulating environmental contaminants in food.The Congressional Research Service provided five analyses of previous food contamination episodes, Reviews of the draft report were provided by the advisory panels, Federal agencies, and a number of interested individuals not previously involved with the assessment.Because this assessment addresses concerns of American citizens as well as policy makers and scientists, the summary of the report is also being published as a separate document.The summary provides the interested citizen with an informative and clear overview of this complex problem.