Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances in foods and the dietary exposure among Taiwan general population and pregnant women

Wen-Ling Chen ^a,b, Fang-Yu Bai ^a, Ying-Chia Chang ^a, Pau-Chung Chen ^c, Chia-Yang Chen ^a,d,*

^a Institute of Environmental Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

^b Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan

^c Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

^d Department of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

This study quantified five perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and two perfluorosulfonic acids in cereals, meats, seafood, eggs, pork liver, and milk in Taiwan using ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and evaluated the dietary exposure of the general population and pregnant women using per capita consumption and a questionnaire, respectively. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and PFCAs of 10-12 carbons were found in almost all of the samples in considerable concentrations in rice and pork liver, reaching as high as 283 ng/g (PFOA in pork liver); the levels are two to three orders of magnitude higher than previous reports. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), the most frequently mentioned perfluoroalkyl substance, was rarely detected in many food items (detection frequencies <20% in rice, flour, pork, chicken, salmon, squid, eggs, and milk) at <0.4 ng/g, except for beef, pork liver and some seafood (detection frequencies: 100%, GMs: 0.05-3.52 ng/g). Compared to populations in Western countries, people in Taiwan are exposed to much more perfluorohexanoic acid, PFOA, perfluorodecanoic acid, and perfluoroundecanoic acid (11.2, 85.1, 44.2, and 4.45 ng/kg b.w./day, respectively), mainly due to the higher contaminations in food. The exposure of 8.0 mg PFOA/person/day in the 95 percentile of pregnant women was due to their frequent consumption of pork liver.

Keywords: Perfluorooctanoic acid, Perfluorodecanoic acid, Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, Liver, Tandem mass spectrometry