New Developments in Food Safety Assessment: Innovations in Food Allergy and Toxicological Safety Assessment

Abstract

Food preferably has to be tasteful, healthy, attractive, and affordable, but should above all be safe. The safety of our daily food nowadays is at a reasonable level, but is far from obvious. During the past half century, food risk assessment and risk management approaches have developed. Yet, several white spots or areas of inefficiency still exist. In this chapter, recent and ongoing innovations in two areas are addressed: innovations in food allergy safety assessment and innovations in toxicological safety assessment of food. Regarding food allergy safety assessment, the development of risk assessment-based guidance on precautionary labeling is addressed as well as strategies for assessment of the allergenicity of novel food proteins, either from genetically modified (GM) or non-GM origin. Regarding the toxicological safety assessment of food, an innovative new toxicological safety assessment approach for complex food matrices based on the Threshold of Toxicological Concern concept is presented and discussed.