efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water

Chromium in food and drinking water
Table 8: Summary statistics of the chronic exposure assessment (g/kg b.w per day) for Cr(III)
across European dietary surveys. Estimates were rounded up to one decimal place.
Mean dietary exposure (g/kg b.w per day)
Lower bound (LB)
Upper bound (UB)
Min Median Max Min Median Max
Infants 1.5 - (a) 2.2 1.9 - (a) 3.6
Toddlers 2.3 2.4 4.6 3.1 3.7 5.9
Other children 1.6 2.4 3.5 2.1 3.3 4.9
Adolescents 0.9 1.2 2.1 1.2 1.6 2.5
Adults 0.8 0.9 1.2 1.0 1.2 1.6
Elderly 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.1 1.4
Very Elderly 0.7 0.8 1.2 1.0 1.1 1.5
95 th percentile dietary exposure (b) (g/kg b.w per day)
Lower bound (LB)
Upper bound (UB)
Min Median Max Min Median Max
Infants 4.8 - (c) - (c) 9.4 - (c) - (c)
Toddlers 3.4 4.5 5.9 4.5 6.7 9.0
Other children 2.9 4.2 7.3 3.7 5.6 7.9
Adolescents 1.7 2.4 4.1 2.3 2.9 4.8
Adults 1.2 1.5 2.0 1.7 2.0 2.6
Elderly 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.6 1.7 2.0
Very Elderly 1.2 1.6 1.8 1.7 2.0 2.3
b.w. : body weight.
(a): Not calculated since estimates were only available from two dietary surveys;
(b): The 95 th percentile estimates obtained on dietary surveys/age classes with less than 60 observations may not be
statistically robust (EFSA, 2011b). Those estimates were not included in this table.
(c): Not calculated since estimates were only available from one dietary survey.
6.1.2. Contributions of different food groups to chronic exposure to trivalent chromium by
age class
The dietary exposure to Cr(III) and the contribution of different foods is presented divided by age
class and individual dietary survey. It is important to mention that some dietary surveys (DIPP and
FINDIET 2007) reported the consumption data at the disaggregated level (e.g. reporting the amount of
flour instead of the amount of bread), which could have influence on the contribution of specific food
categories to the dietary exposure to Cr(III). Before calculating the dietary exposure, the available
foods were grouped to explain their contribution to the total exposure to Cr(III). Although some food
commodities such as tea, coffee and cocoa are described in more than one food category (described
within ‘Vegetables and vegetable products’ but also within ‘Non-alcoholic beverages’), they were all
grouped as ‘Non-alcoholic beverages’ when describing the contribution to the dietary exposure to
Cr(III). Appendix E shows the different groups that were created.
6.1.2.1. Infants and toddlers
The results for infants should be cautiously interpreted as only two dietary surveys are available. Mean
dietary exposure to Cr(III) for infants ranged between 1.5 µg/kg b.w. per day and 3.6 µg/kg b.w. per
day (minimum LB and maximum UB). The 95 th percentile dietary exposure for the single qualifying
study was 4.8 μg/kg b.w. per day (LB) and 9.4 μg/kg b.w. per day (UB).
In the infant population the exposure to Cr(III) came basically from two different food categories.
‘Foods for infants and small children’ made the highest contribution (34-53 % of the total) followed
by ‘Milk and dairy products’ (13-18 % of the total) (Figure 10).
As in previous scientific opinions, a mean consumption of human milk of 800 mL per day and a
maximum of 1200 mL per day (EFSA CONTAM Panel, 2011) was considered representative for a
breast-fed infant of three months and 6.1 kg b.w. For the occurrence value, an average Cr(III)
EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 49