efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water

Chromium in food and drinking water
For calculating the chronic dietary exposure to Cr(III), food consumption and body weight data at the
individual level were accessed in the Comprehensive Database. Occurrence data and consumption
data were linked at the lowest FoodEx possible. In addition, the different food commodities were
grouped within each food category to better explain their contribution to the total dietary exposure to
Cr(III). For each country, exposure estimates were calculated per dietary survey and age class (see
Section 5.1.1). Chronic exposure estimates were calculated for 26 different dietary surveys carried out
in 17 different European countries. Not all countries provided consumption information for all age
groups and in some cases the same country provided more than one consumption survey.
6.1.1. Mean and high dietary exposure to trivalent chromium
The mean and the high (95 th percentile) chronic dietary exposures to Cr(III) were calculated separately
for each dietary survey using consumption data recorded at the individual level and for both LB and
UB mean concentrations. Minimum, median and maximum exposure estimates across dietary surveys
and age groups are reported in Table 8. Detailed mean and 95 th percentile dietary exposure estimates
calculated for each of the 26 dietary surveys are presented in Appendix G. In accordance with the
specifications of the EFSA Guidance on the use of the Comprehensive database (EFSA, 2011b), 95 th
percentile estimates for dietary surveys/age classes with less than 60 observations are not considered
since they may not be statistically robust. Mean chronic dietary exposure values, across the different
dietary surveys and age classes, ranged from 0.6 μg/kg b.w. per day (minimum LB) to 5.9 μg/kg b.w.
per day (maximum UB). The 95 th percentile dietary exposure ranged from 1.1 μg/kg b.w. per day
(minimum LB) to 9.4 μg/kg b.w. per day (maximum UB).
EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 48