Special Session- Toxic Elements in Food, Sunday, April 27 @ 8:30 am – 10:35 am
Organizer: Om Parkash Dhankher and Jason White
Presence of toxic elements in foods has become an alarming threat to human health globally. Due to their high and non-threshold toxicity, toxic elements such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and chromium are among the most hazardous substances of public health concern. The uptake of toxic elements by crop plants plays a vital role in transferring these xenobiotics into the food chain. Numerous studies have shown that crops grown on contaminated soil or irrigated with polluted water can accumulate high levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other toxic elements in roots, shoots, and grains. Importantly, there are significant knowledge gaps and complex challenges regarding the toxic element fate in soil, mechanisms of their uptake, transport, and accumulation into food crops. The US FDA, with the USDA and other federal agencies, established the “Closer to Zero (C2Z)” initiative to address these issues and to “reduce dietary exposure to contaminants to as low as possible while maintaining access to nutritious foods.” Consequently, reducing toxic elements exposure in food is critically important, especially for infants, children, and pregnant women. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand the interactions of toxic elements in soils and sediments and mechanisms of their uptake, transport, tolerance, and accumulation in edible tissues. This special session will present and discuss the current state of knowledge and existing knowledge gaps in this area and strategies to minimize the uptake and bioaccumulation of toxic elements for food safety.