[Pollution status and dietary exposure assessment of heavy metal in commercially available cereal-based complementary foods for infants and toddlers in Jiangxi Province from 2015 to 2019].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the pollution status of lead, cadmium, total arsenic and total mercury in commercially available cereal-based complementary foods in infants and toddlers in Jiangxi Province, and to evaluate dietary exposure and their potential health risks.

METHODS

A total of 648 samples of cereal-based complementary foods in for infants and toddlers were randomly collected in circulation in Jiangxi Province, the contents of lead and cadmium were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and total arsenic and mercury were determined by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The dietary exposure of lead, cadmium, total arsenic and total mercury was calculated by point estimate model. Margin of exposure(MOE) and tolerable intake(TI) were used to assess the health risks.

RESULTS

The average values of lead, cadmium, total arsenic and total mercury in cereal-based complementary foods in Jiangxi Province were 0.039, 0.062, 0.080 and 0.0016 mg/kg, the average detection rates are 81.2%, 94.6%, 89.4% and 73.4%. There were no exceedance samples for lead, total arsenic and total mercury. There were partial exceedances of the cadmium standard in 2015-2018, and cadmium exceedances improved significantly in 2019. The MOE values of lead and total arsenic were greater than 1 in different years, total mercury exposure accounted for 0.71%-2.13% of the provisional tolerable weekly intake(PTWI), cadmium exposure accounted for 43.5%-62.3% of the provisional tolerable monthly intake(PTMI) in 2015-2018, decreasing to7.91%-9.23% of the PTMI in 2019.

CONCLUSION

Lead, total arsenic and total mercury contamination in cereal-based complementary foods in Jiangxi Province monitored from 2015 to 2019 was relatively light, cadmium contamination has improved significantly and the health risk of heavy metal intake through cereal-based complementary foods for infants and young children was at an acceptable level.