About the initiative
Reducing child exposure to contaminants
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Closer to Zero initiative aims to reduce child exposure to four environmental contaminants found in food: arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. The FDA has prioritized these four elements due to their relative toxicity, prevalence in the food supply and the relative contribution of food as a source of exposure. The initiative prioritizes young children because of the impact that exposure to these contaminants can have on development, particularly neurodevelopment.
Role of the Evidence Center
The Texas A&M Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Evidence Center was commissioned to perform a scoping review and research gap analysis to assess the availability of scientific evidence in the peer-reviewed literature examining arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury contamination in agricultural production of food for human consumption.
The work will focus on contaminant sources related to soil amendments, growing and growth conditions, harvest practices and related scientific topics; contaminant content in foods, including grains, vegetables, fruits, seafood (fish and shellfish) and meat and poultry; and technologies and methodologies such as detection methods and manufacturing methods for contaminant mitigation.
The Evidence Center will produce a report and publish the literature scoping review and research gap analysis.