Hazard Ratio and Hazard Index as Preliminary Estimators Associated to the Presence of Furans and Alkylfurans in Belgian Foodstuffs

Abstract

This paper provides an estimation of the hazard related to the presence of furan and five alkyl furans (2- and 3-methylfuran, 2-ethylfuran, 2,5- and 2,3-dimethylfuran) in foodstuffs available in the Belgian market. To achieve this objective, a specific sampling plan was designed to ensure that the samples collected (n = 1003) represent the diversity of the Belgian food chain. Herein, the concepts of the Hazard Ratio of a sample (HRs) and the Hazard Index of a sample (HIs) were introduced to primarily characterize the hazard related to the co-occurrence of these compounds. The HRs was measured as the ratio of the potential daily exposure to a substance (expressed in mg/Kg of food) to both the 10% reference dose level for chronic effects (expressed in mg/(kg b.w*day)) and the human standard weight (expressed in kg). Whereas the HIs is the sum of the HRs of compounds that affect the same target organ/system, a hazard index greater than one indicates a highly contaminated matrix that could induce a hazard. It is an alarm indicating that additional attention should be given to this matrix. This may involve additional analyses to confirm the high level, to identify sources, etc. It is also an alarm for the risk assessor to be very careful with flagged matrices and to avoid combination with other matrices. The HIs highlight a relatively low concern for all foods analyzed (HI median < 1.0) with a relatively higher suspected hazard for coffee drinks (HI median = 0.068, HI max = 0.57). This preliminary estimation of the potential hazard suggests that coffee beverages should be examined in more detail in a full risk assessment and that coffee consumption should be taken with caution given the levels of furan and alkylfurans reported in this study.

Characterizing the formation of process contaminants during coffee roasting by multivariate statistical analysis

“…With regard to the process contaminants measured in this work, the highest mean concentrations were measured for 2-methylfuran (21000 µg/kg), followed by furan, 2,5-dimethylfuran and 3-methylfuran in the range between 5930 and 1041 µg/kg. These values are consistent with previously reported values (EFSA, 2017;Kettlitz et al, 2019;Alsafra et al, 2022). The median concentrations of other alkylfurans, thiophenes and acrylamide are all generally below 500 µg/kg.…”

Uptake and Distribution of Perfluoroalkyl Substances by Grafted Tomato Plants Cultivated in a Contaminated Site in Northern Italy

“…Assuming this as the worst-case scenario, the estimation of non-carcinogenic health hazards due to the consumption of tomato fruits was determined by calculating the target hazard quotient (THQ) for individual detected PFAS (i.e., PFBA, PFPeA, and PFHxA) with the following equation (Kavcar et al, 2009): THQ i = C i x DI / RfD i , where C i is the i-PFAS concentration (mg g − 1 FW), DI is the average dietary daily intake per unit of body weight (BW) (g kg − 1 BW day − 1 ), and RfD i is the oral reference dose (mg kg − 1 BW day − 1 ) of the i-PFAS. The DI of raw tomato fruits for Italian adult population (DI = 1.16 g kg − 1 BW day − 1 ) was retrieved from the most recent version of the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database, available on the data.europa.eu website (https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/t he-efsa-comprehensive-european-food-consumption-database?locale (Alsafra et al, 2022). A HI < 1 indicates unlikely adverse effects due to PFAS exposure, while a HI ≥ 1 indicates that there is a potential risk to observe chronic non-cancer adverse effects on human health.…”