Abstract: Comparison of ADIs(acceptable daily intake) of rare earths elements proposed at different times reveals that the ADIs proposed recently are much lower than those in the past,reflecting that rare earth elements do have biotoxic effects.Based on the findings that agricultural products containing higher rare earth elements residues may enter human body through food chain,potential environment risks of their agricultural application and wastes from rare earth refineries are discussed and potential food safety issues are analyzed.

Key words: rare earth element(RE), acceptable daily intake(ADI), residue, food safety