Food contamination during food process

• Food contamination can take place during all the food processing chain.
• Different steps of the food processing are reviewed.
• Several contaminants related to food processing are discussed.
• The development of analytical methodologies in each case is discussed.

Food contamination can come from different situations. A wide overview is presented in this paper, where the different steps applied to food, from the reception of raw materials to the final food intake by consumers, are shown.Among the sources involved in the food contamination processes the following ones can be highlighted: a) External raw food contamination due to environmental contamination; b) Transport of raw materials to the factory where they will be processed; c) Food conditioning, which involves the storage of raw materials, preheating, disinfection, cleaning and sterilization steps; d) Heating steps either by boiling, cooking, baking, frying or combining with other ingredients at high temperature in an oven or in a reactor; e) Food packaging; f) Transport of packaged food and g) Storage and distribution of packaged food. The problems related to each step as well as the resulting contaminants for the food are shown and discussed.