title: Risk assessment of Belgian adults for furan contamination through the food chain.
abstract: Risk assessment is an interdisciplinary process used to quantify the risk linked to a hazard. In the present paper it is applied to quantify the risk linked to furan ingestion through the food chain for the Belgian adult population. Two approaches, deterministic and probabilistic, were carried out in parallel. The deterministic method relied on a case study, whereas the probabilistic approach involved statistical distributions of contamination and consumption data to calculate a statistical distribution of the daily intake. First, the deterministic method revealed a low estimated daily intake (EDI) for the average population (380 ng*(kg(bw)*day)⁻¹) and a huge contribution of coffee consumption to the EDI (55%). Increasing or decreasing the daily coffee consumption by one cup can affect the EDI by about 22%. Afterwards, the probabilistic approach showed that the average population has a low EDI (494 ng*(kg(bw)*day)⁻¹), and that high contamination levels were only registered in a small proportion of the population. Finally, a comparison of the RfD(chronic oral) showed that less than 10% of the Belgian population had an EDI above the reference dose proposed by the USEPA; the majority of the population had an EDI 20% below the reference dose. The margin of exposure (MoE) approach indicated that the level of risk related to furan intake through ingestion is low, with a MoE > 10,000 for more than 10% of the population and no result < 100.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit in Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Applied to Veterinary Sciences (UREAR), Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scholl
authors.forename: M-F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Humblet
authors.forename: M-L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Scippo
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Pauw
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Eppe
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saegerman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001530:Belgium; D003069:Coffee / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination; D005663:Furans / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis*; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee; D005663:Furans; D015386:Hazardous Substances; C039281:furan