The occurrence, exposure and risk assessment of perfluoroalkyl acids in food from mainland, China

ABSTRACT

To study the contamination of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in Chinese food and the risk of dietary exposure for the Chinese population, the data of 17 PFAAs covering 38 cities throughout China in 15 groups of foods were collected for meta-analysis from published and available research literature. Using food consumption and body weight parameters, estimated dietary intakes (EDIs) were calculated for evaluation using the Scenario-Based Risk Assessment (SceBRA) modelling. Among food groups, the highest ΣPFAAs concentrations and EDI contributions were both found in poultry (363 ng/g), fish and shrimp (313 ng/g), dark vegetables (309 ng/g), fruits (116 ng/g) and pork (25 ng/g). The EDI of adults in the high-exposure scenario was about twice that of the intermediate-exposure scenario, while the EDI of children was about twice that of adults’ EDI in the intermediate-exposure scenario. In addition, the PFOS EDI for children under high exposure approached its tolerable daily intake (TDI). Therefore high dietary exposure to PFAAs is giving rise to an increased health risk, especially for children.

KEYWORDS:

• Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs)
• Chinese food
• dietary exposure
• health risk assessment
• estimated dietary intake (EDI)
• perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11275130) and Key Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (No. 2013FY113100-3).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China [2013FY113100-3]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [11275130].