Unveiling the chemical complexity of food-risk components: A comprehensive data resource guide in 2024

Background: With the influence of climate change, environmental pollution, global industrialization, and new agricultural practices, increasing amounts of chemical substances with potential risks—both anthropogenic and biogenic—enter the food supply chain, entailing new challenges to food safety and security. Although some food-risk components (FRCs) have been accessed and regulated, the toxicity and exposure level of the numerous components detected in food remain unknown, leaving questions on their effect on food safety. Therefore, multiple databases on emerging FRCs have been constructed to aid in food safety assessment, regulation, and communication; however, their focus areas, data content, quality, and accessibility have not been systematically summarized, which hinders their applications and the development of data-driven methods in the food safety field. Scope and approach: The major objective of this review is to introduce representative FRC databases with different focus areas, along with their chemical presentation, data quality and availability, and successful applications. Key findings and conclusions: Over the past decades, over 50 FRC databases have been released, contributing significantly to scientific research, policymaking, and education. However, our analysis unveils persistent challenges such as delayed updates, accessibility concerns, reproducibility issues, suboptimal data quality, and inadequate coverage in underdeveloped regions. To address these shortcomings, we propose an initiative aimed at enhancing future FRC databases, prioritizing the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. Additionally, we highlight the potential of future strategies, e.g., natural language processing, cheminformatics-enpowered suspect and non-targeted analysis, and genome mining, for the detection and analysis of emerging new FRCs outside of existing databases. By embracing these initiatives and strategies, we lay the groundwork for a robust framework facilitating enhanced food safety assessment and informed decision-making in the face of evolving challenges.