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Furan is an organic, volatile compound used in various chemical-manufacturing industries. Headspace gas chromatography is the analytical method of choice for obtaining reliable results on its occurrence. The presence of furan in some food items has been known since the late 1970s, but a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) survey published in 2004 revealed the occurrence of furan in a broad variety of canned and jarred foods, including baby food, that undergo heat treatment. Furan is carcinogenic in rats and mice, showing a dose-dependent increase in hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas. In rats, a dose-dependent increase of mononuclear leukaemia is evident and a very high incidence of cholangiocarcinomas of the liver, even at the lowest dose tested. There is evidence to indicate that furan-induced carcinogenicity is probably attributable to a genotoxic mechanism. However, chronic toxicity with secondary cell proliferation may indirectly amplify the tumour response. From the available data, there is a relative small difference between possible human exposure and the doses in experimental animals required to produce carcinogenic effects. However, reliable risk assessment requires further data on both toxicity and exposure. The European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) recommended these studies as part of a reliable risk assessment of furan in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approaches for the risk assessment of carcinogens in food have evolved as scientific knowledge has advanced. Early methods allowed little more than hazard identification and an indication of carcinogenic potency. Evaluation of the modes of action of carcinogens and their broad division into genotoxic and epigenetic (non-genotoxic, non-DNA reactive) carcinogens have played an increasing role in determining the approach followed and provide possibilities for more detailed risk characterisation, including provision of quantitative estimates of risk. Reliance on experimental animal data for the majority of risk assessments and the fact that human exposures to dietary carcinogens are often orders of magnitude below doses used in experimental studies has provided a fertile ground for discussion and diverging views on the most appropriate way to offer risk assessment advice. Approaches used by national and international bodies differ, with some offering numerical estimates of potential risks to human health, while others express considerable reservations about the validity of quantitative approaches requiring extrapolation of dose-response data below the observed range and instead offer qualitative advice. Recognising that qualitative advice alone does not provide risk managers with information on which to prioritise the need for risk management actions, a "margin of exposure" approach for substances that are both genotoxic and carcinogenic has been developed, which is now being used by the World Health Organization and the European Food Safety Authority. This review describes the evolution of risk assessment advice on carcinogens and discusses examples of ways in which carcinogens in food have been assessed in Europe.