Food, Drug & Chemical Toxicology
Preamble/Overview
Food is of paramount importance as it is required in sufficient quantity to provide a healthy life. There is increasing concern about food safety and food contamination either through environmental pollution or adulteration round the globe. To ensure an adequate food supply during non-agriculturally productive periods, it has become necessary to find methods to preserve and process the food. With the fast growth of food processing industries, the trend towards the use of various food additives added for technological purposes has also increased. New chemical entities are being exploited as additives in food. The adulteration of food due to deliberate mixing of inferior grade agents for disguising and to earn undue profits is also a serious problem. Furthermore, un-intentional contaminants may creep up during field production or processing and storage. Recombinant DNA technology for production of GM food has to be exploited for adequate food supply or else the crisis shall keep on increasing. However, the safety of this GM food/crop has to be established before commercialization. Based on our traditional knowledge the beneficial effects of herbs are a promising area for encountering several toxic manifestations. Thus, toxicity/safety data for these chemical moieties along with GM food and traditionally used herbs need to be generated.