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The impact of food-borne viral pathogens on human health can be substantial (Luthi, 1997; Meade et al., 1999; Appleton, 2000; Sair et al., 2002) even though significantly fewer viruses than bacteria can spread via foods (Cliver, 1997). General difficulties in recovering and identifying viruses from foods and clinical specimens collected during food-borne outbreaks grossly underestimate the true role of viruses as food-borne pathogens (Collins, 1997; Bresee et al., 2002; Koopmans et al., 2002), reinforcing the need for proper inactivation of food-borne viruses. The main focus of this chapter is on the testing and application of chemicals (microbicides) that can be used to inactivate viruses on inanimate and animate food contact surfaces as well as for the decontamination of foods consumed raw or with minimal processing. Table 12.1 defines the common terms to be used in this chapter.

In practical terms the aim of an acceptable cleaning programme (including, where necessary, a disinfection element) must be to restore equipment and especially food contact surfaces to the required level of cleanliness. For nonfood contact surfaces and floors, walls and ceilings the standards demanded when cleaning will be lower than for the food contact surfaces themselves.

A number of factors have impacted on the development of metal packaging in general and on coating and printing technologies in particular over the past 30 years. Perhaps the most significant of these factors has been legislation controlling the discharge of organic solvents and other chemicals to the atmosphere, i.e. the control of VOCs. This control can be expected to continue into the future but other factors, always there in the past, can also be expected to come to the fore and these can be divided into two main categories: broadly environmental and broadly commercial. In this chapter we will review these factors and how their impact can be expected to change over the next decade.

This chapter discusses the scientific and legal basis for establishment of a threshold of regulation for substances used in food contact material. The so-called threshold of regulation is set at a level below which exposure to a given chemical substance can be reasonably expected to result in negligible risk in the absence of specific information on the toxicity of the substance. The utility of the threshold of regulation concept in enabling regulatory decision-making has been frequently discussed in the literature (Frawley, 1967; Flamm et al., 1987; Rulis, 1989; Munro, 1990; Machuga et al., 1992). In August 1995, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established a process for applying a threshold of regulation to uses of substances in food contact materials (Food and Drug Administration, 1995). Other regulatory bodies worldwide are also currently considering the application of the concept to the regulation of food packaging and other regulatory areas. We use the FDA’s process as an established example, but the general principles of the threshold process are applicable to any regulatory process for food packaging and may have application in broader regulatory areas.

A trundle round a supermarket, a glance at the kitchen, or a tour of a food processing plant are sufficient to show that there are myriad exemplars of migration into food. They range from the very common, where millions of items are used each day (e.g. metal cans), through occasional or irregular activities (e.g. cooking), to rare events such as repairs. Few — including quite common ones — fit closely the models in chapters 2 and 3, let alone the even simpler models used in regulations. This chapter identifies and briefly considers these situations. As far as possible, topics have been grouped under headings in alphabetical order. No attempt has been made to rate their relative importance.

Whenever food is prepared, all food contact equipment and utensils must be cleaned and sanitized (see Chapter 4 on food safety and sanitation). The methods described here utilize EPA-approved sanitizing chemicals and adapt them to practical situations that can be adjusted for all applications, from industrial to home use.

I. De Minimis Risk Regulation: Incentives and Obstacles.- 1. De Minimis Risk: From Concept to Practice.- 2. De Minimis Risk as a Regulatory Tool.- 3. Application of the De Minimis Concept in Risk Management.- 4. Science and Its Limits: The Regulator's Dilemma.- II. Quantitative Aspects of de Minimis Risk.- 5. Significant Risk Is Not the Antonym of De Minimis Risk.- 6. On Defining a De Minimis Risk Level for Carcinogens.- 7. De Minimis Risk and the Integration of Actual and Perceived Risks from Chemical Carcinogens.- 8. Carcinogenic Potencies and Establishment of a Threshold of Regulation for Food Contact Substances.- III. Regulatory Applications of de Minimis Risk.- 9. Implications of De Minimis Risk Concepts for OSHA.- 10. Applications of De Minimis.- 11. The NCRP Considerations on Levels of Negligible Risk.- 12. A Summary Perspective on NRC's Implicit and Explicit Use of De Minimis Risk Concepts in Regulating for Radiological Protection in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.- 13. The Feasibility of Establishing a De Minimis Level of Radiation Dose and a Regulatory Cutoff Policy for Nuclear Regulation.

It has been well established that human foods may contain trace amounts of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines. Originally, it was thought that the use of nitrite as a curing agent for flesh foods was the major source of these trace compounds in the diet. Subsequent research has clearly shown that other processing and packaging procedures can also introduce trace amounts of these carcinogens into foods. These procedures include drying foods in direct flame heated air, migration from food contact surfaces and direct addition as contaminants. In addition, other reports of N-nitrosamines in foods have less well defined routes of contamination. These sources of N-nitrosamines in foods will each be briefly reviewed in this paper and recent data from our laboratory concerning N-nitrosamines in products which directly contact foods presented. We also are reporting the N-nitrosothiazolidine content of fried-out bacon fat.