THE USE OF IN-VITRO MODELS FOR ASSESSING THE PRESENCE AND SAFETY OF RESIDUES OF XENOBIOTICS IN FOOD

In order to give a more scientific basis to the health risk assessment of residues of environmental contaminants, agrochemicals and natural toxins in food products, it is important to increase our knowledge of the mechanisms behind the toxic effects of both single and, especially , mixtures of compounds, as well as of actual exposure levels. In addi tion, it is important to improve the techniques that are currently use d to extrapolate animal data to humans by performing proper species co mparisons. In vitro models offer new opportunities for us to fill in s ome of these gaps in our knowledge. Furthermore, in view of the ever-i ncreasing number of chemicals that need to be monitored, in vitro mode ls can be used as bioassays, thereby detecting compounds or groups of compounds by their biological activity rather than by their physicoche mical properties. in this review article, we describe some of the rece nt advances in this field, including the development oi bioassays for environmental contaminants with oestrogenic and dioxin-like activities .