Food Safety Watch fact-sheets are intended to provide essential scientific information to support risk assessment, HACCP and troubleshooting activities.

Food Safety Watch members can download and use more than 100 food safety hazard fact sheets covering everything from Salmonella to scombrotoxin and aflatoxins to acrylamide.

All our fact sheets are listed below. Those highlighted are available to all visitors to the site (just click on the title to see the fact sheet). The rest are only available to members via the download store. If you would like to get immediate access to the download store you can join Food Safety Watch today.

(A compilation of Food Safety Watch fact-sheets and additional material is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry as The Food Safety Hazard Guidebook. Click here for more details.)

Fact sheets

Food safety overview

Biological Hazards

Bacteria

Aeromonas
Arcobacter
Bacillus species
Campylobacter
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium perfringens
Enterobacter sakazakii
Enterococci
Listeria monocytogenes
Mycobacterium paratuberculosis
Plesiomonas shigelloides
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Salmonella
Shigella
Staphylococcus aureus
Streptococci
Verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli(VTEC)
Vibrio cholerae
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Vibrio vulnificus
Yersinia enterocolitica
Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
Other Enterobacteriaceae

Viruses

Astroviruses
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis E
Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses
Noroviruses
Parvoviruses
Rotaviruses
Sapoviruses

Parasites

Protozoa

Cryptosporidium
Cyclospora
Entamoeba
Giardia
Toxoplasma

Nematodes

Anisakids
Trichinella

Other parasites

Prions

Chemical Hazards

Biological toxins

Fungal toxins

Aflatoxins
Citrinin
Cyclopiazonic acid
Deoxynivalenol
Ergot
Fumonisins
Moniliformin
Ochratoxins
Patulin
Sterigmatocystin
Trichothecenes
Zearalenone
Other mycotoxins

Plant toxins

Cucurbitacins
Cyanogenic glycosides
Furocoumarins
Glycoalkaloids
Grayanotoxin
Lectins

Fish toxins

Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP)
Azaspiracid shellfish poisoning (AZP)
Ciguatera fish poisoning
Diarrhoeic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP)
Neurologic shellfish poisoning (NSP)
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP)
Tetrodotoxin

Biogenic amines

Biogenic amines (excluding histamine)
Scombrotoxin (histamine)

Non-biological chemical contaminants

Contaminants produced during processing

Acrylamide
Benzene
Chloropropanols
Furan
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)

Contaminants from food contact materials

Bisphenol A
Phthalates
Semicarbazide

Environmental contaminants

Dioxins and PCBs
Heavy metals
Melamine
Perchlorate

Veterinary residues

Antibiotics
Hormones

Allergens

Food allergy overview
Allergen control options
Allergen legislation

Specific allergens

Celery
Eggs
Fish allergy
Milk
Mustard
Peanut allergy
Shellfish
Soya
Sesame
Sulphite
Tree nuts
Wheat

Miscellaneous

Food safety legislation overview
HACCP overview
Sources of further information