[Current issues of regulation of contaminants in food].

Abstract

In the Russian Federation, ensuring food security is one of the main tasks of state policy, which is reflected in the national Food Security Doctrine, which declares the need not only to control products for compliance with the mandatory requirements of the technical regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union, but also to harmonize food quality and safety standards with international ones. The purpose of the work was to identify priorities for the development or revision of characteristics and parameters of food safety and quality in the Russian Federation, taking into account global trends. Material and methods. The comparative analysis of the normative legal acts of the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Economic Union, documents of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, Codex Alimentarius, national and international databases on the toxicity and danger of chemicals has been carried out. As part of the study, a search of literature for the last 8 years was performed using Elsevier, eLIBRARY, PubMed bibliographic platforms. Results. Traditionally, Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) is most concerned about the regulation of heavy metals, pesticides, mycotoxins, veterinary drugs and chemicals entering food as a result of technological processes. The management of the danger and risk of exposure to contaminants in food is based on the establishment and updating of hygienic standards, including the maximum permissible levels of residual content, (temporary) permissible daily doses of consumption, permissible levels of migration from containers and packaging, prohibition and (or) restriction of the use of highly hazardous chemicals, their replacement with safer alternatives, changing technological processes. Conclusion. A comparative analysis showed that despite the active actions of Rospotrebnadzor to develop new standards, hygienic regulations and guidelines for the control of contaminants, harmonization with international requirements is needed in a number of areas based on fundamental research in the field of hygiene and nutrition science. The standards for the permissible lead content in food and the maximum permissible levels of residual amounts of a number of pesticides in agricultural crops require updating. In addition, activities under the Rotterdam Convention's prior informed consent procedure indicate the need for timely and relevant decisions on the prohibition or restriction of particularly hazardous chemicals and pesticides.