Wild game consumption habits among Italian shooters: relevance for intakes of cadmium, perfluorooctanesulphonic acid, and ¹³⁷cesium as priority contaminants

ABSTRACT

The consumption habits of 766 Italian shooters (96% males, 4% females), on average 52 years old, have been investigated, in Italy, through the distribution of questionnaires delivered during shooters’ attendance to training and teaching courses, in compliance with 853/2004/EC Regulation provisions on food hygiene. The most consumed wild species recorded were pheasant > woodcock > choke among feathered animals, and wild boar > hare > roe deer among mammals, respectively. An average of 100–200 g game per serving (four servings per month) was consumed, with highest intakes of 3000 g per month; meat, liver, and heart were the preferred food items. Mammalian and feathered game was regularly consumed with friends and relatives in 83% and in 60% of cases, respectively. Accounting for an inventoried population of 751,876 shooters in Italy, it is estimated that there is regular consumption of wild game in around the 3% of the Italian population. More than 80% of responders were aware of health risks related to game handling and to food safety issues. Due to the occurrence in wild boar meat and liver of the heavy metal cadmium (Cd), the persistent organic pollutant perfluorooctan sulphonic acid (PFOS), and the radionuclide ¹³⁷cesium (¹³⁷Cs), it was possible to demonstrate the usefulness of such a food consumption database for intake assessment in this sensitive group of consumers. In high consumers of wild boar, threshold concentrations for intakes have been estimated in the ranges of 48–93 ng g^–1 for Cd, 35–67 ng g^–1 for PFOS and 0.20–0.34 Bq kg^–1 for ¹³⁷Cs.

KEYWORDS:

• Italian shooters
• wild game consumption
• intake assessment
• contaminants

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the following persons for their active involvement in the elaboration and administration of the questionnaire to Italian shooters: Davide Aldi, Elena Andreoli, Simone Angelucci, Elisa Armaroli, Guido Ballerio, Alessandra Barchetti, Marco Basso, Martina Besozzi, Giancarlo Bravaccini, Mario Burlin, Barbara Buttaboni, Mauro Caccia, Silvia Capasso, Francesco Casalinuovo, Pellegrino Cerino, Mario Chiari, Carlo Citterio, Gabriella Conedera, Ivano Confortini, Giuseppe Cotturone, Umberto Di Nicola, Davide Fabbri, Gregorio Failla. Stefano Fenoglio, Sandro Flaim, Francesco Giofrè, Emanuela Gioia, Francesco Grenzi, Ruggero Giovannini, Maurizio Lodi, Dorotea Lombardo, Rosaria Lucchini, Luca Maffioli, Alessia Mariacher, Giuseppe Martino, Silvana Matiello, Vito Mazzarone, Luca Mattioli, Piergiuseppe Meneguz, Andrea Messori, Walter Mignone, Gioia Mingo, Federico Montanari, Federico Morandi, Carmelo Musarò, Giacomo Nicolucci, Loris Pasa, Francesco Peloso, Aurelio Perrone, Marco Picciati, Valerio Pituelli, Franco Recchia, Redazione URCA Informa ER, Maurizio Rozza, Silva Rubini, Arianna Schmoliner, Giampiero Semeraro, Stefano Tasca, Alberto Tazioli, Cecilia Testa, Karin Trevisiol, Cristina Troietto, Roberto Viganò, Luca Visconti, Ettore Zanon.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health [grant RF 2009 number 1534860, Project ENVI-FOOD - coordinator Dr Gianfranco Brambilla].