Determination of furan levels in commercial samples of baby food from Brazil and preliminary risk assessment

Abstract

Commercial baby food samples available on the Brazilian market (n = 31) were analysed for furan content using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method preceded by solid-phase microextraction. A limit of detection of 0.7 µg kg⁻¹, a limit of quantitation of 2.4 µg kg⁻¹, mean recoveries varying from 80% to 107%, and coefficients of variation ranging from 5.6% to 9.4% for repeatability and from 7.4% to 12.4% for within-laboratory reproducibility were obtained during an in-house validation. The levels of furan found in the samples were from not detected to 95.5 µg kg⁻¹. Samples containing vegetables and meat showed higher furan levels as compared with those containing only fruits. An exposure assessment showed furan intakes up to 2.4 µg kg⁻¹ body weight day⁻¹ (99th percentile) for babies fed exclusively with commercial baby foods. Margins of exposure obtained from intakes estimated in this work indicated a potential public health concern.

Keywords:

• gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
• solid-phase microextraction (SPME)
• exposure assessment
• process contaminants
• baby food

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Adriana Alves Barreto for the statistical analysis and Dr Rita de Cássia Aquino for the consumption data of commercial baby foods. Scholarship and financial support from FAPESP (Proc. 2008/50095-0) and CNPq (Proc. 474267/2008-3 and Proc. 578381/2008-7) are also gratefully acknowledged.