efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water

Chromium in food and drinking water
exposure estimates ranged from a minimum LB of 2.9 μg/kg b.w. per day to a maximum UB of
7.9 μg/kg b.w. per day.
In general, the main contributors to the exposure in the age class ‘Other children’ were the food
groups ‘Milk and dairy products’ (7-22 % of the total, median = 11 %), ‘Chocolate (Cocoa) products’
(4-32 % of the total, median =12 %) and ‘Bread and rolls’ (1-19 % of the total, median = 10 %)
(Figure 12). Apart from the high contribution to the exposure of composite food in some countries, the
food group ‘Vegetables and vegetable products (including fungi)’ contributed among the different
dietary surveys only between 1 % to 10 % of the total exposure to Cr(III) (median = 4 %). As for
‘Toddlers’, the reported consumption of cocoa powder was responsible of the high contribution of
‘Non-alcoholic beverages’ in the two dietary surveys with the highest values (31 % and 40 %).
NFA
enKid
NUT_INK05
VCP_kids
EFSA_TEST
INRAN_SCAI_2005_06
Regional_Crete
DONALD_2008
DONALD_2007
DONALD_2006
INCA2
STRIP
DIPP
Danish_Dietary_Survey
SISP04
NUTRICHILD
Regional_Flanders
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
%
Milk and dairy products
Chocolate (Cocoa) products
Bread and rolls
Vegetables and vegetable products
(including fungi)
Composite food (including frozen products)
Fruit and fruit products
Meat and meat products (including edible
offal)
Animal and vegetable fats and oils
Potatoes and potatoes products
Snacks, desserts, and other foods
Spices
Sugar and confectionary (non chocolate
products)
Biscuits (cookies)
Fish and other seafood (including
amphibians, reptiles, snails and insects)
Non-alcoholic beverages (excepting milk
based beverages)
Rest of food categories
Figure 11: Main food groups contributing (%) to the chronic dietary exposure to Cr(III) for the age
class ‘Other children’. 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).
6.1.2.3. Adolescents
A total of 12 dietary surveys were available to estimate the chronic exposure to Cr(III) in
‘Adolescents’. The minimum value for the mean dietary exposure at the LB was 0.9 μg/kg b.w. per
day, while the maximum estimated value at the UB was 2.5 μg/kg b.w. per day. For the 95 th percentile
dietary exposure the values ranged between 1.7 μg/kg b.w. per day (minimum LB) and 4.8 μg/kg b.w.
per day (maximum UB).
In general, the main foods contributing to the dietary exposure to Cr(III) in ‘Adolescents’ were the
same as described for ‘Toddlers’. The main food groups were ‘Bread and rolls’ (6-20 % of the total,
median = 13 %), ‘Chocolate (Cocoa) products’ (4-30 % of the total, median = 9 %) and ‘Milk and
dairy products’ (6-17 % of the total, median 8 %). In addition, ‘Non-alcoholic beverages’ was also a
major source of exposure to Cr(III) (1-37 % of the total, median 8 %) with an important contribution
of cocoa powder used to prepared cocoa drinks (particularly in specific surveys such as enKid and
EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 51