In the first part of a review article dealing with main elements of chemical-toxicological safety of Hungarian foods of animal origin, the author gives a short summary of possible chemical food-borne hazards, outlines the relevant Hungarian legislation and highlights the importance of veterinary drug and pesticide residues in food. Among the veterinary drugs, the paper is concerned primarily with certain banned substances such as chloramphenicol, 5-nitrofuran derivatives or nitroimidazoles and with compounds prohibited for growth promotion, including steroid and polypeptide hormones, beta-agonists or antibacterial growth promoters. Recent data obtained from Hungarian and German monitoring programmes on the prevelance of banned substances and antibacterial inhibitory residues are presented. As regards the pesticides, the residues of chlorinated hydrocarbons are of particular toxicological importance and discussed in details.
