Scientific Opinion on the risks to public health related to the presence of perchlorate in food, in particular fruits and vegetables

Abstract

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) received a request from the European Commission for a scientific opinion on perchlorate in food, in particular fruits and vegetables. Perchlorate is a contaminant released into the environment from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The use of natural fertilisers and perchlorate contaminated irrigation water may lead to substantial concentrations in leafy vegetables. Water disinfection with chlorinated substances that potentially degrade to perchlorate could be another potential source of contamination. EFSA received analytical results for 11 675 samples submitted by eight Member States, mainly for fruits, vegetables, and fruit and vegetable products. The EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM Panel) performed estimates of both chronic and 'short-term' exposure considering the available dataset, and data from the literature on the levels of perchlorate in fruit juices, alcoholic beverages, milk, infant formulae and breast milk. The CONTAM Panel established a tolerable daily intake of 0.3 µg/kg body weight per day, based on the inhibition of thyroid iodine uptake in healthy adults. Amongst the vulnerable subpopulations, potential acute effects of perchlorate have been suggested for fetuses and infants. The CONTAM Panel noted that a single acute exposure to perchlorate at levels found in food and water is unlikely to cause adverse effects on human health, including the more vulnerable groups of the population, and concluded that the establishment of an acute reference dose for perchlorate is not warranted. Overall, the

Periodates as Potential Replacements for Perchlorates in Pyrotechnic Compositions

“…Alkali metal perchlorates such as potassium perchlorate (KClO 4 )h ave been used extensively in pyrotechnics due to their higho xygenc ontent, highd ecompositiont emperatures, and favorable thermodynamic properties. However, these oxidizers have faced increasing regulatory scrutiny by national and local governments [1].F or instance, the U.S. EnvironmentalP rotectionA gency has establishedafederal guidelineo f1 5p arts per billion (ppb) for perchlorate (ClO 4 À )i nd rinking water and is in the process of determining ad efinitiver egulatory limit [ 2].T he permissible limits in the states of Massachusetts and California have been reduced to just 2ppb and 1ppb, respectively [3][4][5].T he European Food Safety Authority is also concerned about perchlorate contamination in food [6].I ti sk nown that ClO 4 À competesw ith I À for uptake by the thyroid gland, due to the similar ionic radii of the anions. Although perchlorate uptake appears to be reversible,e specially with intake of iodide-containing foods [1],t he effect of perchlorates on the development of the brain and nervous system remains ac oncern [7,8].I nt he United States,i ncidents involving munitions-derived perchlorateg round water contamination have disrupted or prevented military trainingexercises.…”

Endocrine Disrupters and the Safety of Food Chains

“…In this respect, monitoring of food production should extend to the living environment of the food-producing organisms; thus, the origin and quality of feeding stuffs [7,8,10] and fertilizers [70] should not be overlooked, as they are significant determinants of human dietary exposure. The food safety authorities should enforce the updating of the current systems of hazard analysis and control of food safety, which now focus mainly on microbiological risks, to include the prevention of long-term toxicological risks: relevant hazards may range from contamination-liable food ingredients [36,74] to mycotoxins in vulnerable commodities such as breakfast cereals [51] and food contact materials [12,42].…”

“…The research needs for risk assessments involve a number of areas, such as: the mechanisms underlying combined effects [17,18,19,24,25,27,28]; the assessment of long-term effects on the programming of target organs and systems upon prenatal exposure [41,44,45,46,47,48] as well as during the postnatal developmental windows through to adolescence [13,34,38,39,40], and, last but not least, the interactions between contaminants and natural food components [60,61,62,64,68,70], in particular to support the risk-benefit analysis of whole foods [21,59]. …”

“…Refined models of dietary exposure assessment are being developed, taking into account age and gender differences in food consumption habits, as well as groups with enhanced intake (e.g., high seafood consumption) and/or vulnerability (e.g., low iodine status) [5,22,35,51,70]. The role of the metabolism and ecology of edible organisms as determinants of food contamination should be considered when appropriate [7,10,16,75].…”

“…In healthy adult humans, the relatively low thyroid hormone turnover and the reserves of iodinated thyroglobulin allow partly compensating for the reduced hormone synthesis in the thyroid; however, chronic adaptive changes undergone to cope with a sustained inhibition of iodine uptake may lead to the development of multinodular toxic goiter in populations with mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency. Moreover, due to the enhanced biological susceptibility of the developing organism, even short-term exposure may be a concern for fetuses, breastfed infants or young children with a low iodine status [70]. Finally, besides bioactive compounds, fruits and vegetables provide dietary fiber, which modulates the activity of the intestinal microflora and, hence, the bioavailability and intestinal metabolism of estrogens [71].…”