Food Safety At The Molecular Level: Crossing The Ecological Threshold

The zero-tolerance precautionary approach to ban certain antibiotics from food has proven unworkable as a result of continuing analytical progress. New regulatory standards on chemical residues do not adequately address the situation, leaving technical progress, not toxicological relevance, to determine undesirable levels. As new chemical substances are identified in nature, detection must identify toxicity in terms of actual levels of exposure, but also whether a causal link between chemical and illegal conduct can be established.