Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Food Science Volume 2015, Article ID 545640, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/545640 Review Article Benzene as a Chemical Hazard in Processed Foods Vânia Paula Salviano dos Santos,1 Andréa Medeiros Salgado,1 Alexandre Guedes Torres,2 and Karen Signori Pereira3 1 Laboratorio´ de Sensores Biologicos,´ Escola de Qu´ımica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Avenida Horacio´ Macedo 2030, CT, Bloco E, Sala E-122, Ilha do Fundao,˜ 21941-598 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 2Laboratorio´ de Bioqu´ımicaNutricionaledeAlimentos,InstitutodeQu´ımica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, AvenidaAthosdaSilveiraRamos149,CT,BlocoA,Sala528A,IlhaFundao,˜ 21941-909 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 3Laboratorio´ de Microbiologia de Alimentos, Escola de Qu´ımica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Avenida HoracioMacedo2030,CT,BlocoE,SalaE-104,IlhadoFund´ ao,˜ 21941-598 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Vaniaˆ Paula Salviano dos Santos;
[email protected] Received 18 August 2014; Revised 13 January 2015; Accepted 21 January 2015 Academic Editor: Jessica L. Jones Copyright © 2015 Vaniaˆ Paula Salviano dos Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper presents a literature review on benzene in foods, including toxicological aspects, occurrence, formation mechanisms, and mitigation measures and analyzes data reporting benzene levels in foods. Benzene is recognized by the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) as carcinogenic to humans, and its presence in foods has been attributed to various potential sources: packaging, storage environment, contaminated drinking water, cooking processes, irradiation processes, and degradation of food preservatives such as benzoates.