Survey of some market basket commodities for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon content.

The Food and Drug Administration multi-component regulatory procedure for determining polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in foods was recently used to survey 24 foodstuffs for the presence of these compounds. The procedure has a reliable limit of quantitation of 2 ppb. The potent carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene was detected in only one of the 24 products analyzed, at a level of 3 ppb. Pyrene and/or fluoranthene were found in 19 of the 24 samples examined, at levels ranging from less than 1 ppb to about 75 ppb. A comparison of the recent survey data to that obtained approximately 10 years ago reveals that the types and levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons found are essentially unchanged.