title: Assessment on dietary melamine exposure from tainted infant formula.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the dietary melamine exposure in Chinese infants and young children from the consumption of melamine adulterated Sanlu infant formula.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four age groups of infants and young children (3, 6, 12, and 24 months) were chosen as the assessed subjects and the maximum amount of infant formula consumption was estimated based on the recommended usage level in the package insert of Sanlu infant formula and other brands. Melamine was analyzed in 111 Sanlu infant formula samples collected from the markets in Beijing and Gansu province using the LC-MS-MS with a limit of quantification of 0.05 mg/kg. Four levels of melamine concentration were chosen to estimate the dietary intakes, including the mean, median, 90th percentile, and maximum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The infants of 3 months had the highest intake of melamine, and with the increase of the age (month), the intake decreased. Based on the median melamine concentration (1,000 mg/kg) as an example, the melamine intakes for the infants of 3, 6, 12, and 24 months were 23.4, 21.4, 15.0, and 8.6 mg/kg bw/d, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dietary melamine intakes from tainted Sanlu infant formula significantly exceeded the TDI level (0.2 mg/kg bw/d) recommended by the WHO Expert Meeting in 2008. However, the present assessment has some limitations including the poor representative samples, the varied melamine concentrations in the adulterated Sanlu infant formula, and other brand infant formula possibly consumed by these infants.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China.
authors.forename: Xu-Dong
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhu-Tian
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yun-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yong-Ning
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wei-Xing
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004032:Diet; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D005411:Flame Retardants / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D005506:Food Contamination; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D041943:Infant Formula / Q000737:chemistry*; D008297:Male; D014227:Triazines / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005411:Flame Retardants; D014227:Triazines; C011907:melamine