Food safety is supported by two types of science, basic science and regulatory science. Basic science reveals the effects of various hazards such as chemical substances and microorganisms on the function and structure of our body. Regulatory science is more directly related to risk assessment and risk management of foods. The difference between basic science and risk assessment is that basic science is based on personal interests, ideas and beliefs, whereas risk assessment is conducted in a neutral and fair manner based only on science but not on personal beliefs or interest. Therefore, there is no consumer-biased risk assessment or company-biased risk assessment. It is hoped that each academic society dealing with food safety will continue active research in basic science and also will disseminate information related to regular science.

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This review describes the history of the Japanese Society of Veterinary Science (JSVS), the relationship between JSVS and the Japan Veterinary Medical Association (JVMA), and the role and activity of JSVS in the field of food safety. The JSVS was established in 1880 as a society for the researchers in the field of veterinary science. At present, the JSVS involves 12 subcommittees ranging from the basic veterinary science to applied and clinical veterinary sciences. Food safety is one of the most important topics for the JSVS, and most of the subcommittees are involved in this field; particularly, the subcommittees of microbiology, avian diseases, parasitology, public health, and pharmacology/toxicology play an important role in identifying new findings that can be useful for keeping food safe. Many veterinarians and the members of JSVS are working as professionals in many governmental or private organizations for monitoring the hygiene of animals, farms, abattoirs, meat processing facilities, retail shops, and restaurants. These activities are generally not known to the general public; however, the veterinarians and the members of JSVS realize that it should be a matter of course that professionals who have such expertise contribute to public society. The JSVS is thus continually engaged in research and dissemination of information on food safety.

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The Japanese Society for Food Hygiene and Safety was founded on March 23, 1960 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. The aim of this society is to communicate, cooperate and promote research on food hygiene, and to contribute to academic and cultural development by disseminating relevant research results. This effort involves the two specialty areas of chemistry and microbiology, both important for food safety. In January 2011, the Society was certified by the Cabinet Office as a public interest incorporated foundation, dedicated to promoting Japanese food sanitation and academic research activities within industry, government and academia. Currently, the total number of members (regular members, supporting members, subscribing members, student members) is more than 2,200. The Society publishes a journal containing academic papers and information on food hygiene six times each year. This journal includes a mixture of English and Japanese scientific papers. The name of the journal in English is Food Hygiene and Safety Science (Shokuhin Eiseigaku Zasshi). This journal is also tracked in PubMed and has an impact factor.
In this rapidly changing era, there are important questions such as what is the value of an academic society for both its members and for society at large and how should we disseminate information from our academic societies to the public? It is necessary to constantly evolve and develop as an academic society capable of providing cutting-edge information in high quantity and quickly. Our Society constantly thinks about this important issue and is carrying out reforms. Also, in order to further develop the society, it is important to foster both social contributions through public service activities and to raise the value of the Society from the viewpoint of our members. In this article, I would like to introduce the outline of our Society's past and current efforts and future strategies.

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The concept of “functional food” was first created by the scientists working with the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry (JSBBA) thirty years ago. Food functions and beneficial effects of dietary substances on human health attracted much attention by scientists and now form the most active field of food research. In contrast, food safety has not been a major area of research in JSBBA. However, it is noteworthy that functional food research does include several elements concerning food safety. Dietary fibers known to suppress intestinal absorption of toxic materials have recently been used as functional food substances beneficially reducing risks of metabolic syndrome. Increases in infection from food-derived pathogens has accelerated studies on food factors with anti-infection functions. Discovery of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the end of the 20^th century has led to studies on biological systems for detoxification and development of new methods to excrete harmful chemicals from the body. A food safety problem of notable concern to JSBBA is “food allergy”. Many studies on identification and characterization of food allergens have been done and have proven useful in developing allergen-free food products. Basic studies on the immune system, including gut immunity, have led to the discovery of anti-allergic food substances that can potentially induce oral immune tolerance or suppress inflammatory reactions. Recent development of many functional food products, including Food for Specified Health Use (FoSHU) and Food with Function Claims (FFC) in Japan, has raised another discussion about food safety, which is the safety evaluation of functional food or its ingredients. Thus, very diverse but unique food safety studies have been progressing in JSBBA.

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It is important to define the toxicity of chemical substances through animal testing, but toxicology studies in academic institutions have a short history. The Society of Toxicology in the US (SOT) was founded in 1961 and the Federation of European Toxicologists & European Societies of Toxicology (EUROTOX) was founded in 1962. The Japanese Society of Toxicology derives its origin from a semiprivate toxicology study group which was created in 1973. This group was renamed the Japanese Society of Toxicological Sciences (JSTS) in 1980. The JSTS is affiliated with the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) and has started to work internationally. The JSTS was renamed the Japanese Society of Toxicology (JSOT) in 1997. The membership number exceeds 2600 (as of May 31) and the JSOT hosts the world’s second largest toxicological conference.
The social role of toxicology is important and the evaluation of food safety is of particular importance for human health. Food additives present in daily foods are considered foreign substances. Food additives such as coagulating agents and preservatives needed for the manufacturing and processing of foods have been in use for a long time. The acceptable daily intake (ADI) for food additives is defined as the maximum amount of a chemical that can be ingested daily over a lifetime without appreciable health risk based on the result of toxicity studies.
There is no potential difference in toxicity between natural substances and chemically synthetic substances. It is wrong to regard that “natural substances are safe, but chemical synthetic substances are dangerous”. Natural substances are not always safe. Sometimes the amount of active ingredients in a natural substances is insufficient and, in addition, natural substances may contain impurities. On the other hand, chemically synthetic substances have definite specifications and purity. The supply of chemical synthetic substances is typically stable and they can be used with reliability.
A primary mission of toxicology is to identify hazards and health risks for humans using chemicals such as food additives.

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The Japanese Society of Toxicologic Pathology (JSTP) was organized in 1985, with the purpose of the progressive establishment of toxicologic pathology, and contribution to the world by assurance of the safety of various chemicals in human environments. Humans are constantly exposed to a large number of chemicals, either intentionally or unintentionally, throughout life, and these chemicals exert a variety of biological effects in humans. Some of the effects are beneficial, but there are also adverse effects. It is thus necessary to minimize adverse effects, and maximize beneficial human effects, by evidence-based and scientifically appropriate means. The JSTP consists of experts belonging to academic, regulatory and industrial fields dealing with such chemicals, and thus contributes to the assurance of their safety from the basis of both pure and regulatory sciences. Needless to say, food is a mixture of chemicals to which humans are intentionally or unintentionally exposed. Food safety is, therefore, one of the most important issues with regard to chemical safety, and also one of the main targets of JSTP. The JSTP has in fact been committed to food safety for a long time, and with enormous enthusiasm is planning to make a continued and greater commitment.

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The Japanese Society of Food Chemistry (JSFC) was created 1994, when the new Food Sanitation Law was established. JSFC provides broad coverage in the field of food and food related chemicals, including food additives, flavors, pesticides, contaminants in food, genetically modified foods, etc. Those activities include the fields of chemistry, safety, effectiveness, intake, productivity, government regulations and laws, management, and statistics, etc.
Food safety is controlled based on the risk analysis of each chemical. There are three major steps, i.e., risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. The Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) was established in July, 2003, based on the Food Sanitation Law. Many of members of JSFC become involved in the FSCJ to fulfill their mission in risk assessment of each chemical. The JSFC also contributes basic scientific data and scientific research during its annual meetings, specific symposiums and seminars, and also scientific publications in the JSFC journal, Japanese Journal of Food Chemistry and Safety (JJFCS). JSFC is continuously helpful for young scientists, who will become leaders and leading members of FSCJ, and will also make significant contributions to the food safety in Japan.

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Biorefinery is a coined word defined as the technology for manufacturing biofuels and chemical products using biomass as a raw material. We are vigorously conducting research on marine biorefinery using the Japanese Lessoniaceae (Eisenia bicyclis, Eisenia arborea, Ecklonia cava, Ecklonia kurome, and Ecklonia stolonifera) as biomass. In this review, we introduce the latest research results in the following three areas: (1) phlorotannins and their new physiological functions, (2) separation and application of seaweed-degrading bacteria, and (3) production of rare sugar from alginic acid. Phlorotannins, which are specifically contained in brown algae, are attracting attention as new functional polyphenols. As a new physiological function, it was found that phlorotannins (eckol and its oligomers) contained in the Lessoniaceae have anti-glycation activity superior to aminoguanidine, a synthetic anti-glycation agent. A marine bacterium Formosa haliotis strain MA1, which was newly isolated from the gut of abalone, has many hydrocarbon degradation genes to degrade brown algal polysaccharides. Alginic acid is the mucus polysaccharide most abundantly contained in brown algae. It was also revealed that the strain MA1 has the ability to produce succinic acid from alginic acid. Furthermore, a marine bacterium Falsirhodobacter sp. alg1 has two novel alginate lyases (AlyFRA and AlyFRB) that have been isolated from spoilage of the brown algae. We succeeded in producing the rare sugar (4-deoxy-L-erythro-5-hexoseulose uronic acid) from alginic acid with high purity and high yield using recombinant proteins of the alginate lyases.
In September 2016, we established the Seaweed Biorefinery Research Center at Mie University in order to globally disseminate our research results and products.

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Epidemiologic studies have shown that the coffee drinking habit can reduce the risk of gout and hyperuricemia. In our recent chemical studies, only the roasted coffee beans demonstrated xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibition, while green and dry beans did not. XO is the rate-determining enzyme in production of uric acid during human purine catabolism. Initially, several chlorogenic acid lactones were identified in hot-water extracts of roasted coffee beans after purification by SEC chromatography. Two lactones had moderate XO inhibitory activity and all the lactones were observed only in roasted coffee based on HPLC analysis of various kinds of coffee beans. We next found that the ethyl-acetate-soluble part of the hot-water extract of roasted coffee beans showed more potent XO inhibitory activity. This fraction is not considered to contain amounts of chlorogenic acid lactones. XO inhibitory assay-guided fractionation produced a predominantly active fraction in the faster eluting part, compared to that of chlorogenic acid lactone via medium-pressure chromatography using an octadecylsilyl column. Further purifications of the fraction produced pyrogallol as a very potent XO inhibitor, which had an IC₅₀ of 0.73 μmol L^-1, much stronger than that of other related polyphenolic compounds. The mechanism of XO inhibitory activity of pyrogallol was investigated. Pyrogallol was unstable and readily converted to purpurogallin in a pH 7.4 solution. The XO inhibitory activity of the purpurogallin (IC₅₀ in pH 7.4 solution: 0.2 µmol L^-1) was higher than that of pyrogallol (IC₅₀ in pH 7.4 solution: 1.6 µmol L^-1). Molecular docking simulations showed that purpurogallin had stronger affinity for the active site of XO than the corresponding pyrogallol. These results revealed that the potent XO inhibitory activity seemingly observed in pyrogallol is derived from its chemical conversion into purpurogallin. These identified XO inhibitors present in roasted coffee may work in the human body after coffee drinking to control overproduction of uric acid by XO.

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The word “herb” can be thought of as either a natural material used for medicines or a material consumed by health-conscious people for personal healthcare. In the former use of herbs they are legally classified as medicines and in the latter case herbs are not considered a medicine. Some other plant materials also have this dual use and their health claims are permitted exclusively for legal medicine situations. Many species of healthrelated herbal teas are commonly found worldwide such as in China, Europe, or African countries; however, little is known for Central Asian countries. An herbalist in Uzbekistan was invited to contribute to this special feature to describe his knowledge on Uzbek herbs. Other authors are expected to describe historical background, special materials or unique applications relevant to herbal teas. In Japan, while herbal tea has been commonly consumed as a beverage since early times; the same formulation in a teabag^∗ has also been used for medicines. This chapter summarizes the history and the varieties of herbal tea for beverages, as well as the background of herbal tea in a teabag formulation to be listed on the Japanese Pharmacopoeia with a recent descript ion. The history and the variet ies of pharmaceutical herbal teabags are also discussed with a focus on their relevance to women's medicine. (^∗According to the 17^th edition of Japanese Pharmacopoeia, terminology of tea used for medicine is defined as “Teabags”, though it was defined as “Tea” in the 5^th edition.)

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