CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RESIDUES IN FOODS

Funds are to be used to determine any changes in levels of dioxins and related chemical contaminants in the food supply. This will enhance current objectives in the project, to provide data for the USDA-Food Safety Inspection Service and to improve diagnostic tools to screen for chemical contaminants. Objective 1: Update data on levels of dioxins and related compounds in the domestic food supply to provide Food Safety agencies with an adequate profile of the situation and confirm the safety and competitiveness of U.S. foods. Objective 2: Develop inexpensive, rapid, sensitive assays or improved diagnostic tools to screen samples for pesticides and other environmental contaminants such as dioxins. Objective 3: Investigate sources which contribute to levels of these contaminants in food animals, that are, feed components, dust or soils, treated wood, and identify intervention strategies that may reduce the levels. Objective 4: Investigate the uptake, metabolism, distribution, excretion, and fate after excretion of environmental contaminants in animal systems with the goal of developing pharmacokinetic rate and volume constants pertinent to residue depletion modeling and real time calculation of withdrawal intervals to protect both food products and the environment. Subobjectives include in vivo and in vitro metabolism studies and fate and transport in the environment studies.