ABSTRACT
Globally, many children lack sufficient quantities of food, and assuring that food is safe for children is a challenge everywhere. Children may be more susceptible than adults to hazards in food, yet safety standards have been set to protect adults. Consideration of children’s risks begins with an understanding that there are critical windows of exposure during development; that early exposures can have lifelong consequences; and that exposures may be proportionately greater. Immature immune systems confer greater risks to children when they are exposed to certain pathogens. Risks of early childhood exposure to substances that cause cancer, birth defects, endocrine disruption, developmental neurotoxicity, and allergy are discussed. A number of substances in food may be particularly hazardous to children whether present in food as natural products, as pathogens that have been introduced, or as 222chemicals (food additives, chemicals migrating from packaging, residues of veterinary drugs, and residues of environmental pollutants or pesticides that were applied to the food). There are a number of emerging issues, including the presence in our food supply of recently discovered contaminants (brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds, and acrylamide) and the increased use of genetically engineered crops for food production.
