Environmental Chemical Contaminants in Food: Review of a Global Problem

Table 2

Examples of food contamination with different chemicals around the world.

Food contaminants	Foods	Country	References
Metals/metalloids
Pb, Hg	Grains and vegetables	China	[58, 62, 67]
Pb, Cd	Livestock organs	Morocco	[59]
Pb	Sheep livers	Spain	[60]
Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn	Agricultural crops	Romania	[61]
Cd	Locally produced foods	Belgium	[64]
Tl	Lettuce and chard	Germany	[65]
Pb, Cd	Soybeans	Argentina	[66]
Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe	Fish	Turkey	[72]
Mycotoxins
Deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, T2 toxin and HT-2 toxin	Wheat, barley, Japanese retail foods	Japan	[126]
Aflatoxin, ochratoxin	Wheat flour	China	[127]
Fumonisins	Maize	South Africa	[128]
Nivalenol	Cereals and cereal products	Tunisia	[129]
Aflatoxins	Ground nut oil	Sudan	[130]
Antimicrobials
Antimicrobials	Pork meat	Madagascar	[131]
	Table eggs	Sudan	[132]
	Milk	Peru	[133]
	Beef	Nigeria	[134]
	Meat	Brazil	[135]
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Benzo[a]pyrene	Barbecued foods	Sweden	[136]
Chrysene
Anthracene	Yogurt	Italy	[137]
Fluoranthene
19 PAHs	Grains, flour, and bran	Poland	[138]
Total PAHs	Oyster	Japan	[139]
Pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Chlorpyrifos	Catfish	Australia	[140]
	Vegetables	China	[141]
	Food plant	Algeria	[142]
DDTs and other OCPs	Edible offal	Egypt	[143, 144]
	Milk
	Chicken products	South Africa	[145]
	Milk	Ethiopia	[146]
	Fish	Mozambique	[6]
PCBs and OCPs	Baby foods	Korea	[147]
OCPs and pyrethroids	Honey	Egypt	[148]
PCBs and OCPs	Cereals	Poland	[149]
PCBs and OCPs	Milk, yak muscle and liver	Tibet Plateau	[150]
Radioactive substances
Radioactive substances	Water and food	Japan	[103]
Radionuclides	Seafood	India	[104]
Uranium isotopes	Food	Balkans	[105]
Radioactive substances	Water and food	Switzerland	[106]