Endocrine Abstracts

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is an independent government department set up to protect the public’s health and consumer interests in relation to food. The Agency has a vision of ‘safe food and healthy eating for all’.

The work of a scientist, I my case a toxicologist, at the FSA is varied and requires us to develop a number of skills Eating is not risk free and it is very important for the safety of the public to assess and minimise that risk to an acceptable level, and to offer advice to help the public make lifestyle choices based on the best possible evidence. It is here that the work of the FSA toxicologists and scientists are key to that of the agency, whether we are dealing with incidents relating to food safety (e.g. melamine in imported milk powder) or the day-to-day decisions upon which policy is based. In the Chemical Risk Assessment Unit we advise colleagues internally and within other government departments and form the secretarial for the independent Committee on Toxicity who provide toxicology advice to the FSA and Department of Health on matters concerning the toxicity of chemicals. There is also direct access and interaction with the public in response to the many enquiries submitted.

In addition to providing advice we are responsible for the FSA risk assessment research programme. The aim of this programme is to identify, quantify and establish an evidence based risk assessment process in order to ensure the safety of chemicals in food. Examples of projects within this programme include the recently completed work investigating the effects of caffeine consumption in pregnant women, which led to a revision of FSA policy and a change in advice to the public; work looking at the health effects of mixtures of additives in foods; and ongoing work investigating the effects of phytoestrogens on bone metabolism in post-menopausal women.