Risk Assessment Approaches for Carcinogenic Food Contaminants

Abstract

Health Canada has identified the need for a standardized department-wide approach for the risk assessment of carcinogens in foods (e.g., pesticides, food chemical contaminants, veterinary therapeutics). A standardized approach would better facilitate and inform risk management strategies for the control of human exposure to food sources of carcinogens. Within the post- market regulatory context, directly DNA-reactive carcinogens are of most concern because any exposure is theoretically assumed to be associated with a risk of producing a carcinogenic effect in proportion to the dose. Such non-threshold carcinogens, as well as carcinogens in which a non-linear dose response has not been demonstrated, require different approaches for risk characterization. In order to contribute to Health Canada's department-wide discussions regarding the development of risk management strategies for carcinogens, a general overview was conducted on international approaches for post-market risk assessments of carcinogenic contaminants in food. In this review, areas in the risk assessment paradigm which are identified for development of further standardized guidance include the weight-of-evidence determination for whether a compound should be considered a non-threshold carcinogen, the technical criteria for choosing the appropriate dose-response assessment approach, and a consistent approach for interpreting and prioritizing risk.