1. Nature, origin and impact of dense contaminants. Preventive measures

In the broadest sense, a foreign body or dense contaminant is "any particle of matter present in a food product whose nature or texture is not expected by the consumer or customer".

The term "dense contaminant" is often used to distinguish these foreign materials from other contaminants of a chemical (residues of phytosanitary products, heavy metals, mycotoxins, etc.) or biological (micro-organisms, enzymes, etc.) nature, which are in most cases dispersed throughout the mass of the product and can only be detected by sampling and analytical techniques. A distinction is generally made between foreign bodies of endogenous origin (those brought in by raw materials and their packaging) and foreign bodies of exogenous origin (those incorporated during the process).

Boxes 1 and 2 present, for each type and possible and/or presumed origin of foreign...