Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Chemical Contamination of Food

Chemical contamination of food refers to the unintended presence in the food supply of harmful chemical substances such as pesticides, heavy metals, industrial pollutants, naturally occurring toxins, and residues introduced during production, processing, packaging, or storage. Unlike microbiological contamination, w…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 7 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 134× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2379-7835 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

Chemical contamination of food refers to the unintended presence in the food supply of harmful chemical substances such as pesticides, heavy metals, industrial pollutants, naturally occurring toxins, and residues introduced during production, processing, packaging, or storage. Unlike microbiological contamination, which involves living organisms, chemical contaminants are non-living agents that may enter food at any point along the supply chain, from contaminated soil and water to the use of agrochemicals or the migration of compounds from packaging materials. Exposure can be acute, causing immediate illness, or chronic, with low-level intake over long periods linked to effects on the nervous, endocrine, and other body systems and to elevated disease risk. Major categories of concern include mycotoxins produced by molds, trace metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, and contaminants formed during cooking or industrial processing. Managing this risk relies on monitoring, regulatory limits, good agricultural and manufacturing practices, and analytical testing of foods. As a topic within the International Journal of Nutrition, food chemical safety connects to broader questions of dietary quality, food composition, and public health, and this page gathers peer-reviewed, open-access research relevant to food safety and nutrition.

Research published in this journal

7 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 7 articles above have been cited 134 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Chemical Contamination of Food, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in International Journal of Nutrition (ISSN 2379-7835).

Journal editorial board
Kadri Koppel · United States Alicja Kuban-Jankowska · Poland Luigia Pazzagli · Italy

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.