COT Statement on the 2006 UK Total Diet Study of Metals and Other Elements

Overview

The UK Committee on Toxicity reviewed the 2006 Total Diet Study results for aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, copper, germanium, indium, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, strontium, thallium, tin, and zinc. The statement is an A-tier agency interpretation of prepared-as-consumed UK total-diet occurrence and exposure. Where the TDS did not provide speciation, this page keeps total elemental labels and does not substitute species.

Key numbers

• Study design: the UK TDS involved 119 food categories combined into 20 groups of similar foods for analysis.
• Food basis: the survey data related to food prepared as for consumption; drinking-water and dietary-supplement exposures were considered separately.
• General occurrence trend: concentrations were lower than or similar to 1994 and 2000 total diet studies except for aluminum, barium, and manganese.
• Aluminum: miscellaneous cereals had the highest mean concentration at 17.5 mg/kg; this group comprised cakes, scones, biscuits, breakfast cereals, flour, and rice and contributed 42% of population dietary aluminum exposure.
• Aluminum exposure: high-level intake for adults, pre-school children, young people, institutionalised elderly, and vegetarians, plus mean-level intake for pre-school children, exceeded the JECFA/EFSA PTWI equivalent to 143 µg/kg body weight/day by up to 2.4-fold.
• Barium: nuts had the highest mean concentration, 131 mg/kg, compared with 56 mg/kg in 1994; bread was 0.81 mg/kg.
• Antimony: the meat-products group had the highest concentration at 0.0099 mg/kg; estimated exposures were well below the 6 µg/kg body weight/day TDI.
• Total and inorganic arsenic: 2006 TDS average population total-arsenic exposure was 0.061 - 0.064 mg/day, comparable to 0.055 mg/day from the 1999 TDS; inorganic arsenic contributed less than 12% of total dietary exposure.
• Inorganic arsenic: population dietary exposure was 0.0014 - 0.007 mg/day, comparable to 0.0009 - 0.005 mg/day in 1999.
• Cadmium: highest concentrations were in offal 0.084 mg/kg and nuts 0.065 mg/kg; exposures were below the JECFA PTWI equivalent to 1 µg/kg body weight/day.
• Lead: current average population dietary exposure had decreased by about half compared with the 2000 TDS and was 13 μg/day compared with 26 μg/day in 1997.
• Mercury: population dietary exposure in the 2006 TDS was 0.001-0.003 mg/day, comparable to 2000 values of 0.0012-0.0015 mg/day.
• Chromium: estimated population dietary exposure from the 2006 TDS was 0.022-0.029 mg/day, reduced from 0.046 mg/day in 2000.
• Indium: with the exception of canned vegetables and fruit products, indium concentrations were below 0.003 - 0.02 mg/kg; canned vegetables were 0.096 mg/kg, and fruit products were 0.031 mg/kg.

Methods (brief)

The UK Total Diet Study combines food categories into prepared-as-consumed food groups reflecting household consumption. The FSA exposure assessment used food-group concentration data with National Diet and Nutrition Survey consumption data and lower-/upper-bound assumptions for non-detects. The COT also considered potential exposure from drinking water and dietary supplements using DWI and EVM data.

Related evidence

• Bread and baked goods
• Breakfast Cereals
• Other grain products (oat, millet, quinoa, barley)
• Seafood
• Canned Vegetables — REDIRECT (Cat 7 sub-variant of Canned foods, general)
• Canned Fruit — REDIRECT (Cat 7 sub-variant of Canned foods, general)
• Root and Tuber Vegetables
• Nuts and Seeds, Other
• Aluminum
• Arsenic, Total
• Arsenic, Inorganic
• Cadmium
• Lead
• Mercury, Total

Update history

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