Within the Codex Alimentarius, transparency is and has been an important consideration with regard to how and why actions and decisions are made in providing stakeholders with sufficient information and clarity on matters of interest and decision-making.
This report contains monographs prepared at the sixty-eighth meeting of the Joint FAOM0 Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19 to 28 June 2007.
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, GOI, has declared 2008-09 as Food safety and Quality Year. Food safety implies absence or safe levels of various of kinds of contaminants. Sources of food contamination include harmful chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, preservatives, colouring agents, additives, adulterants etc.
Persistent pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), affect endocrine function. Human exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are similar in structure to PCBs, has increased recently, but health effects have not been well studied.
Thirty genotypes of sesame seeds collected from different geographical regions of India were analyzed for organochlorine pesticides viz HCHs, DDTs and endosulfan.
Arsenic-polluted water used for irrigation in certain areas of India, Bangladesh and Nepal is posing a health hazard for people eating food from the crops irrigated. The accumulation of arsenic in the soil is a threat to sustainable agriculture in the areas affected. These problems are not yet widely recognised. Urgent action is required to address them.
