Dietary exposure levels to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans and non-ortho-polychlorinated biphenyls in US meat, poultry and siluriform fish from 2018 to 2019

Abstract

Daily dietary exposure estimates from beef, pork, chicken, turkey and siluriform fish were calculated using toxic equivalency (TEQ) data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s survey of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) in the domestic meat supply and consumption data. Exposure estimates for the whole population and age groups were based on mean consumption of a commodity and mean or 90th percentile TEQ dioxin levels from the survey. Ratios of the exposure estimates to the U.S. EPA oral reference dose (RfD) of 0.7 pg TEQ/kg bw/day were calculated to determine if domestic meat might contribute materially to consumer exposure. In general, normal consumption of lean beef, pork, chicken and turkey will not cause exposures exceeding the RfD. Non-lean meats will have higher dioxin levels as dioxins accumulate in fat, therefore consumption of non-lean meat might cause higher exposure than compared to lean meat. However, on a mean basis, none of the exposure estimates for non-lean beef, pork, chicken or turkey exceeded the RfD for any of the age groups. For some age groups, especially toddlers, there are commodities such as non-lean beef in the 90th percentile of dioxin TEQs and siluriform fish that might exceed the RfD on occasion.

Keywords:

• Dioxins
• PCBs
• dietary exposure
• meat
• poultry
• fish

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Andrew Thompson, Mark Scheuring and Savannah Gray for executing sample processing, extraction and analysis. We also would like to thank all the USDA-FSIS inspection personnel who collected the samples.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes: The use of trade, firm or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Service, or the Food Safety and Inspection Service of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a FSIS-ARS Interagency Agreements 17-115, 18-090 and 19-037 as well as USDA-ARS project 3060-32420-003-00D.