Assessment of dietary cadmium exposure in Sweden and population health concern including scenario analysis

Abstract

The median dietary cadmium exposure for adults in Sweden is around 1 μg/kg/week and the upper 95th and 99th percentiles are 1.6-1.8 and 1.9-2.2 μg/kg/week, respectively. Potatoes and wheat flour were the most important food categories, contributing with 40-50% to the exposure. Differences in dietary patterns between high and low exposed individuals were observed; for high exposed individuals, seafood and spinach contributed with an exposure similar to that low exposed individuals received from potatoes and wheat flour. Consequences of differences in methodology used for exposure assessment are discussed. The median exposure is a factor 2 lower compared to that estimated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It is also a factor 1.4 lower compared to that of the assessment used for development of the EFSA tolerable weekly intake (TWI). The potential importance of this latter fact was addressed by adjusting the present assessment to that used for TWI derivation. While the percentage of the population exceeding the TWI was <1% for the present data, it was around 3% for adjusted data, which is more in line with observations at the level of urinary cadmium. Scenario analysis was also performed to addresses the consequence of increasing/decreasing cadmium occurrence levels.