Environmental contaminants in food
BfR research project on the uptake of heavy metals and dioxins completed
The final report of the research project "Food-borne exposure to environmental contaminants (LExUKon) is present. In the project, scientists and scholars of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is calculated together with colleagues in the research and advisory institute on Hazardous Substances (FoBiG) and the University of Bremen, the quantities of cadmium, lead, mercury, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Consumers usually start with the food. Main source of cadmium intake are Accordingly, vegetables and grains. Take lead consumers primarily via drinks and cereals. Methylmercury is mainly found in fish, while for dioxins and PCBs, the main reason behind dairy products and meat are. "These findings are important for the risk assessment of high importance", says BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "We can estimate the extent of possible health hazards caused by contaminated food better." The project report was published as a booklet and the BfR.
take over food is not only valuable human substances such as vitamins and minerals on, but also undesirable substances in certain quantities are harmful, such as so-called environmental contaminants. These include heavy metals and dioxins that can be transferred to contamination of air, water and soil into food. To estimate the risks of such substances may, this raises the question of how much of it occurring in the food and eat in what quantities, consumers of these foodstuffs. That was the focus of the project LExUKon. Here, standardized methods for the analysis of consumption data and content data of foods developed with environmental contaminants and applied.
was made possible on the basis of Data from the National Food Consumption Survey II (NVS II) of the Max Rubner Institute (MRI) and the Food Monitoring of the Federal Office for Consumer Protection (BVL). The insertion of environmental contaminants on food for the whole population, taking account of different eating habits and lifestyles of individual was determined. It turns out, for example, that consumers eat more fish with age and start to include more methyl mercury than younger people.
The final report of the project was published as a brochure BfR. It shall contain information on the extent to which consumers, the environmental contaminants Cadmium, lead, mercury, dioxins and PCBs absorb about food. The brochure is available on the BfR website www.bfr.bund.de free to download. The booklet can be ordered by fax at publikationen@bfr.bund.de 030-18412-4970 and e-mail.
About BfR
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), a research unit within the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) is. It advises the federal government and the states on issues of food, chemicals and product safety. BfR conducts its own research on topics closely related to its assessment tasks stand.
documents
uptake of environmental contaminants on foods (Information supplied by the BfR 01/07/2011) (PDF, 4153.6 KB)
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