title: Assessing Risk-Based Upper Limits of Melamine Migration from Food Containers.
abstract: Melamine contamination of food has become a major food safety issue because of incidents of infant disease caused by exposure to this chemical. This study was aimed at establishing a safety limit in Taiwan for the degree of melamine migration from food containers. Health risk assessment was performed for three exposure groups (preschool children, individuals who dine out, and elderly residents of nursing homes). Selected values of tolerable daily intake (TDI) for melamine were used to calculate the reference migration concentration limit (RMCL) or reference specific migration limit (RSML) for melamine food containers. The only existing values of these limits for international standards today are 1.2 mg/L (0.2 mg/dm2) in China and 30 mg/L (5 mg/dm2) in the European Union. The factors used in the calculations included the specific surface area of food containers, daily food consumption rate, body weight, TDI, and the percentile of the population protected at a given migration concentration limit (MCL). The results indicate that children are indeed at higher risk of melamine exposure at toxic levels than are other groups and that the 95th percentile of MCL (specific surface area = 5) for children aged 1-6 years should be the RMCL (0.07 mg/dm2) for protecting the sensitive and general population.
authors: Department of Food Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, ROC.
authors: Min-Pei
authors: MP
authors: Ling
authors: Institute of Food Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors: Keng-Wen
authors: KW
authors: Lien
authors: Department of Health Risk Management, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
authors: Dennis P H
authors: DP
authors: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D005062:European Union; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D018857:Food Packaging; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008875:Middle Aged; D019055:No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; D061214:Patient Safety; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan; D014227:Triazines / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014227:Triazines; C011907:melamine
keywords: Health risk assessment; melamine; migration concentration limit