A Critical Overview of Common Foodborne Toxicants and Methods for Their Reliable Detection

Food is an essential commodity for human health. However, toxicants such as mycotoxins, heavy metals, acrylamide, and pesticides can be present in food either naturally or through processing, packaging, or some anthropogenic activities. A thorough review of carefully selected studies revealed that climate change and pandemics have led to an increase in food intoxication that present both long-term and short-term toxicity with potentials of resulting in fertility issues, heart diseases, allergic reactions, and immune system risks. Consequently, regulatory bodies have set permissible limits for the ingestion of these toxicants. Therefore, analytical techniques are employed to detect and quantify these toxicants ensuring that they are within safe limits for consumption. This article critically outlines causes of emerging toxicants in food, their impact on consumer health as well as recent advances (novel approaches) in analytical methods and principles behind their selection, operation, and application for food toxicant determination. Chromatographic techniques, spectroscopy, biosensors, and vision systems are among the most used techniques for toxicant determination due to their sensitivity, but spectroscopy presents additional advantages of non-invasive analysis with cost-effective benefits. The use of algorithms, such as neural networks in emerging techniques such as vision systems and spectroscopy enhance data processing, results in improved outputs for different tasks. These analytical techniques play crucial roles in ensuring that food toxicant levels remain within permissible limits, thereby directly contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) which is good health and well-being.