Food Toxicity Characterization Using In Vitro Bioassay Effect-Directed Analysis

Food may be either contaminated with a range of industrial chemicals or contain naturally produced toxic compounds. Even the most sophisticated chemical analyses are not able to perform or contribute to an effect assessment of food constituents. While in environmental research the application of “effect directed analysis” (EDA) and “toxicity identification and evaluation” (TIE) has been widely accepted and applied, these concepts had been hardly applied for toxicity characterization to food matrices. It has been nevertheless used in the areas of botanical chemistry, pharmacology and ethno-pharmacology, focusing on new drug discovery and in the search for new ingredients. Within this review a scheme for EDA application to food items is formulated based on experiences from environmental toxicology, the few experiences of in vitro effect-directed analysis of food items with a related epidemiological risk are described and discussed. A wider use of EDA for food toxicity characterization is strongly emphasized.