抄録
In the modern day, risk analysis is applied to almost all activities concerning food safety. The international organization such as Codex, the risk analysis is the main policy of the commission and it has been the obligation of every codex committee to use risk analysis as the guiding principle of its work. The risk analysis principle composes of three components, comprising of risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication. The purely scientific component is risk assessment as known. Toxicology is very essential science for the risk assessment component. Risk assessment component composes of four main steps, all steps need different scientific knowledge and techniques. The four steps are hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Especially, the steps on hazard identification and hazard characterization need knowledge and technique of Toxicology. Both steps need toxicological testing, mainly in animals. However, at present toxicologist and allied scientists are trying to find some in vitro toxicity testing method to avoid using animal, as the animal welfare and ethic become more and more restricted. Anyhow, there is still no appropriate technique found to be able to totally replace animal toxicity testing.
The exposure step need some toxicological knowledge and other related science as food consumption survey in case of food safety, exposure study model in case of inhalation and skin penetration as in household and environmental hazard. The last step, risk characterization need the outcome of the toxicology testing, exposure assessment and risk calculation techniques to assess the risk level of the chemical concern. The detail discussion will be presented on the essential of toxicology on the risk assessment steps. Some techniques on the exposure assessment will also be mentioned. The establishment of Thailand Risk Assessment and Surveillance Center (TRAC) for food safety will be briefly presented.
