Contaminant

Contaminants are undesirable substances that lead to the contamination of another substance or mixture of substances. They lead to contamination of the contaminated substance.

According to the EU Contaminants Regulation, contaminants are substances that are not intentionally added to a food , but as a result of pollution by the environment (environmental contaminant) or as a residue in the course of extraction, production, processing, preparation, treatment, presentation, packaging, transport and storage are present in the food. These include B. Heavy metals such as lead , cadmium and mercury , dioxins , polychlorinated biphenyls , polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons , mycotoxins and other environmental toxins . Bacteria can also be "contaminants" (during bacteriological testing in the laboratory). The term “contaminant” does not include the remains of insects, animal hair, drug residues , pesticides and other contaminants . Substances that are intentionally applied but are subject to maximum quantity controls on food are referred to as residues .

literature

Colin Creaser, Rupert Purchase (Ed.): Food Contaminants. Sources and Surveillance . The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge 1991, ISBN 0-85186-606-9 .

Web links

Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) - consumer protection against environmental contaminants in food EU-wide

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Regulation (EEC) No. 315/93 of the Council of February 8, 1993 laying down community procedures for the control of contaminants in food (so-called EC contaminants regulation).
^ Marianne Abele-Horn: Antimicrobial Therapy. Decision support for the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious diseases. With the collaboration of Werner Heinz, Hartwig Klinker, Johann Schurz and August Stich, 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Peter Wiehl, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-927219-14-4 , p. 247 (on certain non-tubercular mycobacteria).

[EG-Kontaminantenverordnung-1] Regulation (EEC) No. 315/93 of the Council of February 8, 1993 laying down community procedures for the control of contaminants in food (so-called EC contaminants regulation).

[2] Marianne Abele-Horn: Antimicrobial Therapy. Decision support for the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious diseases. With the collaboration of Werner Heinz, Hartwig Klinker, Johann Schurz and August Stich, 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Peter Wiehl, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-927219-14-4 , p. 247 (on certain non-tubercular mycobacteria).