Rapid Detection and Safety Evaluation of Hazardous Materials in Food, Dietary Supplements, and Herbal Products

Each year more and more people are turning towards natural ingredients for their health needs. Herbal products, derived from plants or botanicals, have been used for centuries to maintain health or treat diseases. In addition, herbs are also one of the forms of dietary supplements. The production of herbal products includes multiple stages including cultivation, harvesting, processing, storage, and transportation, etc. The contamination with exogenous toxic and hazardous substances including mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metals, and sulfur dioxide may occur at any of these stages. In addition to conventional food, contamination of exogenous harmful substances in herbal products and dietary supplements has been widely reported. Although most exogenous harmful contaminants hardly have acute toxicity, they have cumulative toxicity. Once consumed for a long time, food, dietary supplements, and herbal products contaminated with exogenous harmful contaminants may threaten human life and health. Therefore, the rapid detection and safety evaluation of exogenous harmful contaminants in them have received increasing attention over the years. It is worth noting that the detection of exogenous harmful contaminants in herbal products is complicated by the fact that their matrices are rich in a large number of secondary metabolites that can cause interference. Therefore, development of effective rapid detection methods to achieve the on-site monitoring and on-line screening of exogenous harmful contaminants in food, dietary supplements, and herbal products is particularly necessary.

This research topic aims to propel the rapid detection and safety evaluation of exogenous toxic and hazardous substances in food, dietary supplements, and herbal products. This collection seeks to use innovative methods such as immunoassay, biosensor, spectral analysis, and electrochemical sensing for the on-site screening and on-line monitoring of exogenous harmful contaminants in food, dietary supplements, and herbal products. Our focus is to develop advanced approaches that are sensitive, portable, low-cost, scalable, and reproducible, thereby facilitating safety evaluations of exogenous harmful contaminants and bridging the existing gap between laboratory research and real-world applications.

We welcome research articles, reviews, mini reviews, and methods addressing the rapid detection and safety evaluation of exogenous hazardous materials in food, dietary supplements, and herbal products, but not limited to the following themes:

● Innovative pre-treatment and detection methods for on-line monitoring of exogenous hazardous contaminants

● Novel pre-treatment and analytical approaches for on-site screening of exogenous hazardous contaminants

● Health risk assessment of exogenous hazardous contaminants

● Systematic reviews on the progress and prospect of rapid detection and safety evaluation of exogenous hazardous contaminants

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: On-site screening techniques, On-line monitoring, Immunoassay, Exogenous toxic and hazardous substances, Food and dietary supplements

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.