Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are heterogeneous class of compounds sharing common properties such as long persistency and global transport throughout the environment, adverse effects on humans and biodiversity and bioaccumulation throughout the food chain. Being chemicals of a global concern it is of utmost importance to monitor these chemicals in the environment and foodstuffs, especially in respect to their bioconcentration in food like fish, meat and dairy products. This chapter describes the most important persistent organic pollutants that can be found in food describing the routes of their entrance into environment and effects they produce in humans. In addition, some regulatory aspect and analytical procedures used for their monitoring in food products are presented. © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.