Limit values for intakes of persistent pollutants via food
The page includes limit values set up by international advisory and/or governing bodies regulating environmental health issues for intakes of persistent contaminants, organic or inorganic, via food. Contaminants currently included for their limit values are:
- Mercury (Hg) as its organic form, methylmercury (MeHg), the most readily bioaccumulated form
- Dioxins and furans (PCDD/F) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
- Polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs)
Table 1. Limit values set up by various international regulating bodies.
PBDEs
For polybrominated diphenylethers there is currently no limit values available. JECFA (the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives) however has given an indicative threshold concentration at 100 µg/kg body weight/day, and concludes that ‘the limited toxicity data suggests that for the more toxic (less brominated) PBDE congeners (eg. BDE-47 and BDE-99) adverse effects would be unlikely to occur at doses of less than approximately 100 µg/kg bw per day’. FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) concurs with the JECFA conclusions.
