Toxicological impacts and human health risk assessment of emerging contaminants in food systems

Abstract

Emerging contaminants (ECs) in food systems, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), micro-/nanoplastics (MNPs), pharmaceutical residues, endocrine-disrupting additives, and novel processing by-products, pose complex toxicological and public-health challenges because they occur at low concentrations, often as mixtures, and may act via endocrine, immune, metabolic, or neurodevelopmental pathways. Contemporary human health risk assessment (HHRA) increasingly integrates (i) traditional hazard identification and dose-response modelling (ii) dietary exposure reconstruction using total diet studies and probabilistic models and (iii) mixture frameworks and uncertainty analysis. International guidance from WHO and Codex defines a harmonised risk-assessment workflow, while European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has expanded methodologies for combined exposures and has established health-based guidance values (HBGVs) for key contaminant groups such as PFAS based on immunotoxicity endpoints.