Recently a great attention has been focused in Europe on the importance of food safety and the relation among environmental pollution, contaminants in food and human health. In this context, specific classes of environmental contaminants (e.g, pesticides, metals, dioxins) are discussed in terms of their transition into the food chain and human health. The attention is focused on two main questions - Whether the quantity and bioavailabilty of one chemical in food provides a real risk to human health? Whether the chemical is not present or it is undetected by instruments we have used.

Food quality control, dietary exposure to contaminants, some traditional and innovative detection methods are considered.

Key words: pesticides, metals, dioxins, detection methods