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Review
. 2019 Nov 8;16(22):4361.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16224361.

Persistent Organic Pollutants in Food: Contamination Sources, Health Effects and Detection Methods

Wenjing Guo  1 , Bohu Pan  1 , Sugunadevi Sakkiah  1 , Gokhan Yavas  1 , Weigong Ge  1 , Wen Zou  1 , Weida Tong  1 , Huixiao Hong  1
Affiliations
Review

Persistent Organic Pollutants in Food: Contamination Sources, Health Effects and Detection Methods

Wenjing Guo et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) present in foods have been a major concern for food safety due to their persistence and toxic effects. To ensure food safety and protect human health from POPs, it is critical to achieve a better understanding of POP pathways into food and develop strategies to reduce human exposure. POPs could present in food in the raw stages, transferred from the environment or artificially introduced during food preparation steps. Exposure to these pollutants may cause various health problems such as endocrine disruption, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, birth defects, and dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems. This review describes potential sources of POP food contamination, analytical approaches to measure POP levels in food and efforts to control food contamination with POPs.

Keywords: environmental contaminants; food contamination; food safety; human health; persistent organic pollutants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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