Residues as an undesired by-product are a concern in agricultural and food industries.
Food safety
Toxic chemical residues, wastes or contamination from other processes, are a concern in food safety. The most common food residues originate from pesticides, veterinary drugs, and industrial chemicals.[1] For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have guidelines for detecting chemical residues that are possibly dangerous to consume.[2][3] In the U.S., the FDA is responsible for setting guidelines while other organizations enforce them.
Environmental concerns
Similar to the food industry, in environmental sciences residue also refers to chemical contaminants. Residues in the environment are often the result of industrial processes, such as escaped chemicals from mining processing, fuel leaks during industrial transportation, trace amounts of radioactive material, and excess pesticides that enter the soil.[4]
3D image of Aflatoxin
Characteristic units within a molecule
Residue may refer to an atom or a group of atoms that form part of a molecule, such as a methyl group.
In proteins, the carboxyl group of one amino acid links with the amino group of another amino acid to form a peptide. This results in the removal of water and what remains is called the residue. Naming of residues is done by replacing "acid" with "residue".[5] A residue's properties will influence interactions with other residues and the overall chemical properties of the protein it resides in. One might say, "This protein consists of 118 amino acid residues" or "The histidine residue is considered to be basic because it contains an imidazole ring." Note that a residue is different from a moiety, which, in the above example would be constituted by the imidazole ring or the imidazole moiety.
A DNA or RNA residue is a single nucleotide in a nucleic acid. Examples of residues in DNA are the bases "A", "T", "G", and "C".
