Novel approaches to derive points of departure for food chemical risk assessment

Food chemical risk assessment characterizes the potential hazards and the associated health risks resulting from exposure of humans to chemicals present in food over a specified period. This requires the identification of points of departure, which are usually derived from apical toxicity endpoints in in vivo studies. However, a shift in the traditional paradigm in toxicity testing for risk assessment has started, and increasing attention is now being paid to the use of mechanistic-based and exposure-based approaches, including toxicogenomics and quantitative in vitro-to-in vivo extrapolation. This review outlines the most recent examples of application of these new approaches to derive points of departure in food chemical risk assessment, as well as the challenges limiting their full application and future directions.