STUDIES ON HARMFUL CONTAMINANTS OF FOOD

Abstract

The main goal of the agricultural research, all over the world, is to achieve higher production of the food commodities. The contineus and progressing need for increasing the food is justified because of the booming in human population especially in the developing countries. To attain such target, the research and trials are to be directed towareds two axis; the first is the horizontal expansion, i.e. increasing the planted areas while the second is the vertical improvement, i. e. improving the production per unit of farmed land . The first goal is governed by the water resources which i s the governing factor for agriculture in the tropics especially Egypt. Therefore the technical approaches for increasing the prod uctivity of agricultural lands, within the already existing and available water is the most rapid and promising solution of the acute problem ofthe unsufficient food production. One important focus of the vertical expansion research is increasing plants resistance to insectes and diseases that adversel y affect the produ ctivity by using some organic chemicals known as pesticides. The stability of the residues of such chemical s after being applied on the farms has attracted the attention of food researchers allover the world. Even, aft(·r the degradation of such organic chemicals, there still remain the dangerous effects of the metalic portion of their molecules in their different farms, either as metalloids or as oxides. Another source of contamination is the pollution of agricul tural and food commodities by the heavy metals resulting from the factories and the industrial plants established and spreaded near by the big cities and on the agricultural lands. Such establishments emrnitt vapors, chemicals and dusts which contain countless number of chemicals among them is the heavy metals. The accumulated tra ces of such pollu tants, either insecticides or heavy metals deserve much attention as they may cause acute or chronic hazards to the human beings (as well as to the animal wealth).