Protecting our food: Can standard food safety analysis detect adulteration of food products with selected chemical agents?

The results for these three contaminants (bromadiolone, sodium trifluoroacetate and mercury chloride) are not surprising given that they are not the target of today's food safety testing procedures. These limited results are of note and highlight food chain vulnerability to deliberate contamination events with novel contaminants. The EDEN project is exploring a 2-level approach: screening food with non-specific detection tools which are supplemented by targeted detection tools when an alert is triggered. This approach could lead to increased consumer protection whilst simultaneously reducing the economic burden of testing and product recall for the industry.