Unveiling toxicity profile for food risk components: A manually curated toxicological databank of food-relevant chemicals

Abstract

Rigorous risk assessment of chemicals in food and feed is essential to address the growing worldwide concerns about food safety. High-quality toxicological data on food-relevant chemicals are fundamental for risk modeling and assessment in the food safety area. The organization and analysis of substantial toxicity information can positively support decision-making by providing insight into toxicity trends. However, it remains challenging to systematically obtain fragmented toxicity data, and related toxicological resources are required to meet the current demands. In this study, we collected 221,439 experimental toxicity records for 5,657 food-relevant chemicals identified from extensive databases and literature, along with their information on chemical identification, physicochemical properties, environmental fates, and biological targets. Based on the aggregated data, a freely available web-based databank, Food-Relevant Available Chemicals Toxicology Databank (FRAC-TD) is presented, which supports multiple browsing ways and search criterions. Applying FRAC-TD for data-driven analysis, we revealed the underlying toxicity profiles of food-relevant chemicals in humans, mammals, and other species in the food chain. Expectantly, FRAC-TD could positively facilitate toxicological studies, toxicity prediction, and risk assessments in the food industry.

Keywords:

• chemical toxicity
• database
• ecotoxicity
• food safety
• food toxicology
• human health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant No. 32125033 and Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities of China (111 Program) under grant D20023.