The course is aimed to provide the general concepts of toxicology and illustrate how these principles are applied for the assessment of food safety.

General Toxicology: Xenobiotics, toxic agents and toxins, poisonous/toxic effects, selective toxicity. Characteristics of the exposure to toxic agents. Spectrum of the undesired effects; immediate versus delayed toxicity; local versus systemic toxicity; reversible versus irreversible toxic effects; allergic and idiosyncratic reactions. Basic principles of chemically-induced mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. Direct-acting versus indirect carcinogens. Developmental and reproductive toxicology. Interaction of chemicals; antidotes. Dose-response relationship in toxicology: individual and graded dose-response relationship for toxicant with or without threshold; hormesis. Lethal dose 50 (LD50), therapeutic index, margin of safety and exposure, chronicity index, lethal time 50 (LT50). Animal studies and international harmonization. Acute and repeated-dose studies (subacute, subchronic, and chronic testing). Developmental and reproductive toxicology. New technologies in pre-clinical toxicology. Toxicology in clinical studies. Mechanisms of toxicity. Processes that can change the concentration of the terminal toxic species to the target. Mechanisms and consequences of cell injuries. Adaptive responses and toxicity resulting from tissue-specific alterations in cell growth and differentiation. Epatotoxicity as an example of organ toxicity
Risk assessment/Food toxicology. Hazard Identification: structure-activity relationship, in vitro tests and short-medium-long term animal tests; epidemiological data and on the mechanisms of action. Evaluation of the dose-response relationship: the toxic effects with and without thresholds. NOEL, NOAEL, LOAEL, FEL, ADI. Risk perception, characterization, management and communication.  Toxic substances of natural origin and from technological processes in food. Food additives and residues. Foods in the modulation of toxic effects. Food allergies and intolerances. Food and risk of cancer. Biotechnology in food processing and safety of consumers. The main regulator agencies and the web resources on food safety

Skill to focus on issues related to the risk of exposure to additives and chemical residues in food. To understand the importance of in vitro and in vivo studies to identify and characterize the toxicity of substances in food. Knowing how to look at the main toxicology database to obtain information on additives or residuals substances in food. Learn about the activities and the approach of the main regulatory agency dealing with food

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

It is advisable to use the recommended book, integrating it with the slides made available within the Moodle platform"