A Survey of Extractable Persistent Organochlorine Pollutants in Chinese Commercial Yogurt

Abstract

Eighteen Chinese commercial brands of yogurt were collected from supermarkets from December 2002 to April 2003, for characterization of organochlorine pesticides (OCP) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). Besides monitoring OCP and PCB by gas chromatography, the levels of extractable persistent organochlorine (EPOCl; i.e., sulfuric acid-resistant EPOCl) were also determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The results indicated that the contamination pattern of the selected OCP and PCB were in the order of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDT) approximately hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH) >> aldrin > or = chlordanes > or = heptachlor epoxide and 4-6 chlorinated biphenyls (CB) >> 7-10 CB, respectively. Furthermore, beta-HCH, and 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis (p-chlorophenyl) ethylene were the predominant isomers of HCH and DDT residues in yogurt, and PCB with 4,4'- and 2,3,5- substitution patterns were the predominant congeners of PCB residues. Also, the results indicated that the mean level of total chlorine in the identified organochlorine species was below 4% of EPOCl in yogurt, which implied that more than 96% of EPOCl measured in yogurt samples could not be accounted for by selected OCP and PCB.

Daily intake of anthropogenic pollutants through yogurt consumption in the Spanish population

“…These results are in agreement with other studies performed in dairy products and yogurt in China, Jordan or USA, where also p,pʹ-DDE was the most predominant OCP (Zhang et al 2006;Salem et al 2009;Schecter et al 2010). The ∑DDT was higher in the group of conventional yogurts, although no statistical significance difference was reached.…”

“…Hexachlorocyclohexane (β-and γ-HCH) isomers were also detected with a similar distribution between organic and conventional yogurts (median values of 0.59 vs. 0.74 ng g −1 fat, respectively). These concentrations were lower than those reported in other studies in dairy products, where the average values ranged between 1.2 ng g −1 and 12.8 ng g −1 (Zhang et al 2006;Salem et al 2009;Polder et al 2010;Tornkvist et al 2011;Gutiérrez et al 2012;Weiss et al 2013). We also found residues of dicofol in some of the samples (29.4% of conventional brands and 13.3% of organics), as also described for bovine or human breast milk from Brazil, China, Korea and Japan (Fujii et al 2011;Avancini et al 2013).…”

Metallomics, elementomics, and analytical techniques

“…Since selenium plays important roles in detoxification of both arsenic and mercury, much effort has been expended on the simultaneous speciation of both selenium and mercury species or both selenium and arsenic species by HPLC-ICP-MS [206][207][208]. Solvent extraction with NAA detection for different organohalogen species in biological samples like milk, human tissues, and pine needles has been studied [209][210][211][212][213]. …”

The comparison of probiotic monocultures influence on organochlorine pesticides changes in fermented beverages from cow and goat milk during cold storage

“…In the age of healthy eating, the consumer draws particular attention to the composition of consumed products, amount and type of used additives and problem of the occurrence of many contaminants in dairy products. Particularly harmful and persistent are organochlorine xenobiotics, which significantly reduce the quality of the consumed products (Zhang et al, 2006;Abou Donia et al, 2010). The occurrence of organochlorine xenobiotics in caw and goat milk is one of biological indicators of environmental pollution and, consequently, food contamination.…”