efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water

Chromium in food and drinking water
concentration of 2 g/L in human milk was selected. This selection was based on the upper value of
the range of mean total Cr concentrations described among most of the European studies on breast
milk samples, 0.14-1.80 µg/L (see Section 4.1.3 and Appendix D). The mean dietary exposure for an
infant of 6.1 kg exclusively fed with human milk was estimated to be 0.3 g/kg b.w. per day, while for
the same infant with high consumption the dietary exposure would be 0.4 g/kg b.w. per day.
Nine dietary surveys were available for ‘Toddlers’. This age class showed the highest exposure to
Cr(III). The mean dietary exposure to Cr(III) ranged from 2.3 μg/kg b.w. per day to 5.9 μg/kg b.w. per
day (minimum LB and maximum UB across European dietary surveys, respectively). The
95 th percentile dietary exposure estimates ranged from a minimum LB of 3.4 μg/kg b.w. per day to a
maximum UB of 9.0 μg/kg b.w. per day.
In the toddler population the exposure to Cr(III) was in general mainly due to ‘Foods for infants and
small children’ (1-26 % of the total, median = 9 %), ‘Milk and dairy products’ (9-25 % of the total,
median = 14 %), and ‘Bread and rolls’ (0.3-12 % of the total, median = 10 %) (Figure 10). In some
dietary surveys ‘Chocolate (cocoa) products’ also made an important contribution to the dietary
exposure to Cr(III). The contribution of the food group ‘Vegetables and vegetable products (including
fungi)’ ranged between 3 % and 8 % of the total (median = 6 %). In one survey the reported
consumption of cocoa powder led to the food group ‘Non-alcoholic beverages’ to contribute up to
45 % of the total exposure to Cr(III). However, the consumption data from this dietary survey refers
only to 17 individuals and, therefore, this value could not be representative.
INRAN_SCAI_2005_06
NUTRICHILD
Milk and dairy products
Food for infants and small children
Bread and rolls
enKid
VCP_kids
INRAN_SCAI_2005_06
DONALD 2008
DONALD 2007
DONALD 2006
DIPP
NUTRICHILD
Regional_Flanders
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
%
Chocolate (Cocoa) products
Vegetables and vegetable products
(including fungi)
Fruit and fruit products
Meat and meat products (including
edible offal)
Potatoes and potatoes products
Sugar and confectionary (non chocolate
products)
Composite food (including frozen
products)
Animal and vegetable fats and oils
Biscuits (cookies)
Fish and other seafood (including
amphibians, reptiles, snails and insects)
Non-alcoholic beverages (excepting milk
based beverages)
Rest of food categories
Figure 10: Main food groups contributing (%) to the chronic dietary exposure to Cr(III) for the age
classes ‘Infants’ (from the top the two first surveys) and ‘Toddlers’. Data are presented by individual
dietary surveys across Europe using LB estimations. The names on the left refer to the names of the
different surveys (see Appendix F for more details).
6.1.2.2. Other children
A total of 17 dietary surveys were available to evaluate the chronic dietary exposure to Cr(III) in the
age class ‘Other children’. The mean dietary exposure ranged from 1.6 μg/kg b.w. per day to
4.9 μg/kg b.w. per day (minimum LB and maximum UB, respectively). The 95 th percentile dietary
EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 50