Scientific/Technological Services

Food Safety. Risk assessment.

  • Risk analysis has three components:
    • Risk assessment
    • Risk Management
    • Risk communication
  • Risk assessment is seen primarily as a method of systematic organization of scientific information that provides the scientific basis for risk management decisions.
  • Risk assessment consists of four stages:

Identification of danger

Identification of potential biotic or abiotic agents that may be present in a particular food or group of foods and their possible harmful effects on health.

It requires the collection, organization and evaluation of relevant scientific information from

  • Epidemiological studies in humans,
  • Toxicology studies in animals,
  • In vitro,

allowing linking agent and its source to illness. To make these studies is important to have appropriate analytical methods for agents biotic / abiotic and matrices.

Hazard Characterization

Qualitative evaluation and / or quantitative nature of the adverse health effects related to biotic or abiotic agents that may be present in food.

Should be a model for dose response assessment. However, data on the response to the dose are limited or non-existent in the case of biotic agents, so the assessment should only be carried out if you have the necessary data.

Determination of exposure

Qualitative evaluation and / or quantitative ingestion likely biotic or abiotic agents through food.
Data on concentration of agents in foods combined with food consumption assessed through

  • Total diet studies,
  • Selective studies of certain foods,
  • Studies portions.

Risk Characterization

Estimated qualitative and / or quantitative probability of occurrence of a harmful effect on health and the severity of a specific population.
Risk characterization is integrating the information generated in the previous stages to develop a model for the distribution of risk for the population.

1. identification, detection and quantification of contaminants biotic and abiotic

Abiotic Contaminants

  • Determination of antibiotics in biological matrices
    • chloramphenicol
    • Multi-AGP
    • aminoglycosides
    • sulfa
    • fluoroquinolone
    • b-lactam
  • Determination of peptide hormones in biological matrices
  • Analysis of Mycotoxins
    • Aflatoxin B1, M1, total
      Ochratoxin A *
    • fumonisine
    • FROM WHERE
    • T-2 toxin
    • zearalenone
  • Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
  • Metals
  • Pesticides

Biotic Contaminants

  • Determination of enteric viruses
    • Hepatitis A
    • Gastroenteritis virus (astrovirus, rotavirus, norovirus)
  • Detection of food pathogens in food samples
    • Salmonella
    • Listeria
    • Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli
    • Aeromonas
    • Enterobacteriaceae (Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis)
  • Determination of parasites in food and water irrigation in food
  • Detection of microorganisms that alter foods
  • Detection and identification of animal species
  • Detection of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
  • Detection of food allergens
    • Soya, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds, gluten, milk, egg, fish, crustaceans, molluscs

2. RISK ASSESSMENT FOR HUMAN HEALTH FOOD AND ALTERNATIVE MEANS toxicological CLASSICS

In vivo: rat or mouse

  • Acute toxicity
  • Subchronic Toxicity
  • Chronic toxicity

    In vitro

  • Toxicity systemic cytotoxicity
    • cytotoxicity
  • Reproductive Toxicity
    • Whole Embryo Culture (WEC)
    • Test breeding zebrafish
    • Test embryonic stem cell (EST)
    • Micromassa (MM)
    • Teratogenesis assay in Xenopus frog embryos (FETAX)
  • Genotoxicity
    • Micronucleus test (MNT)
    • Comet assay
      Carcinogenesis *
    • Cell Transformation Assay (CTA)