title: Reaching Nutritional Adequacy Does Not Necessarily Increase Exposure to Food Contaminants: Evidence from a Whole-Diet Modeling Approach.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dietary guidelines are designed to help meet nutritional requirements, but they do not explicitly or quantitatively account for food contaminant exposures.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we aimed to test whether dietary changes needed to achieve nutritional adequacy were compatible with acceptable exposure to food contaminants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the French national dietary survey were linked with food contaminant data from the French Total Diet Study to estimate the mean intake of 204 representative food items and mean exposure to 27 contaminants, including pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins, nondioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (NDL-PCBs) and dioxin-like compounds. For each sex, 2 modeled diets that departed the least from the observed diet were designed: 1) a diet respecting only nutritional recommendations (NUT model), and 2) a diet that met nutritional recommendations without exceeding Toxicological Reference Values (TRVs) and observed contaminant exposures (NUTOX model). Food, nutrient, and contaminant contents in observed diets and NUT and NUTOX diets were compared with the use of paired t tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean observed diets did not meet all nutritional recommendations, but no contaminant was over 48% of its TRV. Achieving all the nutrient recommendations through the NUT model mainly required increases in fruit, vegetable, and fish intake and decreases in meat, cheese, and animal fat intake. These changes were associated with significantly increased dietary exposure to some contaminants, but without exceeding 57% of TRVs. The highest increases were found for NDL-PCBs (from 26% to 57% of TRV for women). Reaching nutritional adequacy without exceeding observed contaminant exposure (NUTOX model) was possible but required further departure from observed food quantities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on a broad range of nutrients and contaminants, this first assessment of compatibility between nutritional adequacy and toxicological exposure showed that reaching nutritional adequacy might increase exposure to food contaminants, but within tolerable levels. However, there are some food combinations that can meet nutritional recommendations without exceeding observed exposures.
authors.affiliation: 1260 INRA, Aix Marseille University, INSERM, Nutrition Obesity and Thrombotic Risk (NORT) Joint Research Unit, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Tangui
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Barré
authors.affiliation: MS-Nutrition, Timone Faculty of Medicine, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vieux
authors.affiliation: 1260 INRA, Aix Marseille University, INSERM, Nutrition Obesity and Thrombotic Risk (NORT) Joint Research Unit, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Marlène
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perignon
authors.affiliation: 1331 INRA, Research Centre in Food Toxicology (TOXALIM), Toulouse, France; and.
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cravedi
authors.affiliation: 1260 INRA, Aix Marseille University, INSERM, Nutrition Obesity and Thrombotic Risk (NORT) Joint Research Unit, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Josèphe
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Amiot
authors.affiliation: 1208 INRA, Montpellier University, CIRAD, SupAgro, Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies (IATE) Joint Research Unit, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Micard
authors.affiliation: 1260 INRA, Aix Marseille University, INSERM, Nutrition Obesity and Thrombotic Risk (NORT) Joint Research Unit, Marseille, France; nicole.darmon@supagro.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Darmon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D002149:Energy Intake; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D005504:Food Analysis; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D063427:Food Quality; D005638:Fruit; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009183:Mycotoxins / Q000032:analysis; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014675:Vegetables
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D009183:Mycotoxins; D010575:Pesticides; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: France; adults; food safety; heavy metals; linear programming; mycotoxins; nutrients; pesticides; polychlorinated biphenyls