Intro -- Food Safety: The Science of Keeping Food Safe -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- A brief history of food safety -- Prehistoric times -- Evolution of cellular protection mechanisms -- Tudor England (1485-1603) -- The times of King George III of England (1760-1820) -- The 1800s - Pasteur's Germ Theory, Lister's antiseptics and the first refrigerators -- The influence of religion on food safety -- The impact of space travel on food safety -- 2 Food Risk -- Introduction -- What is risk? -- The factors that contribute to risk -- Measuring hazard -- Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) -- Maximum Residue Level (MRL) and Maximum Limit (ML) -- Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) and Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) -- Determining risk -- Zero risk -- Risk assessment for a Dundee cake -- Acceptable risk -- Smoking - an acceptable risk? -- Toxic fugu sashimi - tasty, but potentially lethal -- Risk versus benefit -- Risk perception -- The precautionary principle -- Food risk assessment -- Relative risk and risk ranking -- Risk management -- Risk communication -- Quantitative risk assessment -- Regulatory committees -- Food risk assessment - case examples -- Determining exposure -- Dietary surveys -- Total diet surveys -- Food surveillance -- Decision-making/advisory process -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 3 Bacteria -- Introduction -- The discovery of bacteria -- The biology of bacteria -- The bacterial cell wall and Gram's stain -- The bacterial ecology of food -- Human bacterial pathogens on food -- Gastroenteritis -- Food-borne pathogenic bacteria -- Aeromonas -- Bacillus -- Brucella -- Campylobacter -- Clostridium -- Clostridium perfringens -- Escherichia -- Listeria -- Salmonella -- Shigella -- Staphylococcus -- Streptococcus/Enterococcus -- Vibrio -- Yersinia -- Take home messages -- Further reading.

4 Viruses -- Introduction -- The discovery of viruses -- The biology of viruses -- Diseases caused by viruses and mechanisms of viral transmission -- Norovirus -- Hepatitis -- Bacteriophages -- Other food-borne viruses -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 5 Parasites -- Introduction -- What are parasites? -- Flatworms - Platyhelminthes -- Tapeworms - Cestodes -- Anatomy of a tapeworm -- Fish tapeworms - Diphyllobothrium sp. -- Beef tapeworm - Taenia sagitata -- Pork tapeworm - Taenia solium -- Flukes - Trematodes -- Anatomy of flukes -- Liver fluke - Fasciola hepatica -- Nematodes -- Anatomy of nematodes -- Food-borne nematodes that affect humans -- Protozoa -- Amoebae -- Cryptosporidium -- Giardia -- Sarcocystis -- Toxoplasma -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 6 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) -- Introduction -- The history of BSE -- The epidemiology of BSE in England -- Spongiform encephalopathies -- Prions -- The symptoms of BSE -- BSE cases in the UK -- BSE transmission and the origins of PrPSC -- The risk to human consumers of BSE beef - nvCJD -- A case of nvCJD -- BSE risk to human consumers and risk management -- The politics of BSE and implications for food safety worldwide -- BSE incidence around the world -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 7 Chemical Contaminants -- Introduction -- Pesticides -- Pesticide residues in food - assessing risk to the consumer and making sure farmers use pesticides properly -- Risk/benefit assessment for pesticides -- Insecticides -- Organochlorine pesticides (OCs) -- Metabolism/degradation of OCs -- OC residues in food -- Organophosphorus (OP) and carbamate pesticides -- Pyrethroid insecticides -- Herbicides -- Herbicide residues in crops and food -- Fungicides -- Imidazoles (e.g. Imazilil) -- Benzimidazoles (e.g. Thiabendazole) -- Phenylphenol -- Dithiocarbamates (e.g. Zyneb).

Iprodione -- Vinclozolin -- Veterinary medicines -- Antibiotics (e.g. the penicillins) -- Growth promoting chemicals -- Growth promoting drugs -- Fertilisers -- Nitrate - NO3- -- Natural environmental chemicals -- Cadmium in New Zealand shellfish -- Cadmium in offals -- Other natural environmental contaminants in food -- Non-agricultural environmental pollutants -- Dioxins -- Residues monitoring programmes -- Dietary intake and risk to human consumers -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 8 Natural Toxins -- Introduction -- Why produce natural toxins? -- Natural toxins in the human food chain -- Animal toxins -- Tetrodotoxin from fugu -- Saxitoxin - paralytic shellfish poisoning -- Ciguatera toxins in tropical reef fish -- Histamine and scombroid fish -- Plant toxins -- Cucurbitacins from the cucumber family -- Glycoalkaloids from potatoes -- Furocoumarins in parsnips, parsley and celery -- Phenylhydrazines in mushrooms -- Toxicity of agaritine -- Capsaicin, peppers and other flavours -- Oxalic acid and rhubarb -- Mycotoxins -- Aflatoxins -- Patulin -- Phytohaemagglutinins in beans -- Amount of phasin in raw and cooked red kidney beans -- Bacterial toxins -- Phytoestrogens -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 9 Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals -- Introduction -- The first observations of xenoestrogens' effects -- Estrogen receptors - ERs -- Molecular requirements for estrogenicity -- Estrogens are present in both males and females -- Xenoestrogens -- Genistein -- Bisphenol A and 4-nonylphenol -- DDT is also a xenoestrogen -- Human exposure to xenoestrogens -- Can BPA leach from polycarbonate food packaging into food? -- Population level effects of exposure to xenoestrogens -- Estrogens in males and females -- Hypospadias -- Cryptorchidism -- Precocious puberty in girls -- Take home message - are xenoestrogens having an effect on humans?.

The positive health effects of xenoestrogens -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 10 Genetically Modified Food -- Introduction -- A brief introduction to nucleic acids, genetics and molecular biology -- Nucleic acids -- Converting the genetic code into a protein -- Part I: transcription - transferring the message -- Part II: translation - making a protein from the DNA message -- The history of GM crops -- The first GM crop -- The tools of the genetic engineer -- Glyphosate-resistant crops -- Insect-protected crops - BT toxin -- GM crops with enhanced flavour or nutritional properties -- Golden Rice -- What happens if humans eat GM crops or foods made from them? -- Changed biochemistry in GM crops -- What is the effect of eating DNA and RNA? -- GM animals -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 11 Colours, Flavours and Preservatives -- Introduction -- Food colours -- The chemistry of food colours -- The psychology of food colour - the introduction of food dyes -- Non-plant natural colours -- Synthetic food colours -- Take home message - are food colours safe? -- Flavours -- How do we sense flavour? -- Natural flavours -- Nature identical flavours -- Artificial flavours -- The link between flavour and smell -- Flavour enhancers -- Sweeteners -- Preservatives -- Antimicrobial food preservatives -- Antioxidant food preservatives -- Smoking -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 12 Food Irradiation -- Introduction -- Different types of radioactivity -- Particle-based radioactivity -- Electromagnetic rays -- Radioactive half life -- How irradiation kills cells -- The history of food irradiation -- The effect of radiation on microorganisms -- How is food irradiated? -- The effects of irradiation on food chemistry -- The effects of irradiation on vitamins -- Radiation dose -- Does irradiation make food radioactive?.

Health effects of food irradiation -- The use of food irradiation around the world -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 13 Food Safety and the Unborn Child -- Introduction -- 'You are what your mother ate' -- Growth and development of the embryo and fetus -- The stages of development -- The placenta -- Effects of nutrients -- Effects of food chemical contaminants -- Case report - adverse effects on the children of mothers exposed to the insecticide chlopyriphos -- Effects of microbiological contaminants -- Effects on ova and sperm -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 14 Organic Food -- Introduction -- What does 'organic' mean? -- The history and philosophy of organic farming -- Demand for organic food -- Organic farming methods -- Organic farming legislation -- Organic fertilisers -- Organic pest control -- Organic weed control -- Animal health remedies -- Food processing -- Is organic food better for you? -- Nutrients -- Chemical residues -- Natural toxins -- Nitrate residues -- Myths and facts about organic food -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 15 Food Allergy -- Introduction -- What is an allergy? -- The basics of immunology -- Immunity and the immune response -- Sensitisation -- Food allergies -- Some food allergy facts and figures -- The genetics of allergy -- Food allergens -- Milk allergy -- Peanut allergy -- Soy allergy -- Nut allergies -- Seafood allergies -- Shellfish -- Fish -- Gluten allergy (coeliac disease) -- Coeliac disease -- Allergy to eggs -- Allergen cross-reactivity -- Banana/latex allergy -- Food additives allergy -- Why is the incidence of food allergies increasing? -- Increased food allergen intake -- In utero transfer of food allergens -- Excretion of food allergens in mother's milk -- A cautionary note -- Take home messages -- Further reading -- 16 Food Legislation -- Introduction.

Legal processes - how laws are made.