Heavy Metals in US Foods: Exposure Assessment by Age Group and Mitigation Strategies

/in /by

Heavy Metal Exposure in US Foods by Age Group

Heavy Metals in US Foods: Exposure Assessment by Age Group and Mitigation Strategies

Heavy metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) have the potential to cause neurocognitive impairment to infants and young children who are exposed to them in their diets. These elements can also cause chronic toxicological effects in older children and adults. They are unintended contaminants that arise from agricultural soils or other environmental sources.

To help address these risks it is important to identify which foods contain the highest levels of these metals; and based on US consumption of these foods by age group, which food-metal combinations cause the greatest potential exposure via diets.

This research examined which foods contain the highest levels of heavy metals; and based on US consumption of these foods by different age groups, which food-metal dyads cause the greatest human exposures.

The researchers also explored mitigation strategies to reduce these most severe exposures. Feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the strategies were assessed to provide a realistic picture of what we can achieve in the short term to quickly lower exposures.

The Food and Chemical Safety Committee focuses on many different issues related to the safety of the food supply. To deliver output and impact, the committee works in subgroups focused on specific areas of food and chemical safety. See recent publications and upcoming events to learn more about the committee’s work.

Join Us >

Project Investigators

Felicia Wu, PhD.

Michigan State University

Publications

Filter

No results.

WP_Query Object
(
    [query] => Array
        (
            [post_type] => publication
            [posts_per_page] => 5
            [type] => 
            [area] => 
            [committee] => heavymetal
            [authors] => 
            [showtitle] => false
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => _ilsi_type
                            [value] => book
                            [compare] => =
                        )

                )

            [maxyears] => 5
            [tax_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [taxonomy] => ilsi_committee
                            [field] => name
                            [terms] => heavymetal
                        )

                )

            [paged] => 1
            [meta_key] => _ilsi_date
            [orderby] => meta_value
            [order] => DESC
        )

    [query_vars] => Array
        (
            [post_type] => publication
            [posts_per_page] => 5
            [type] => 
            [area] => 
            [committee] => heavymetal
            [authors] => 
            [showtitle] => false
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => _ilsi_type
                            [value] => book
                            [compare] => =
                        )

                )

            [maxyears] => 5
            [tax_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [taxonomy] => ilsi_committee
                            [field] => name
                            [terms] => heavymetal
                        )

                )

            [paged] => 1
            [meta_key] => _ilsi_date
            [orderby] => meta_value
            [order] => DESC
            [error] => 
            [m] => 
            [p] => 0
            [post_parent] => 
            [subpost] => 
            [subpost_id] => 
            [attachment] => 
            [attachment_id] => 0
            [name] => 
            [pagename] => 
            [page_id] => 0
            [second] => 
            [minute] => 
            [hour] => 
            [day] => 0
            [monthnum] => 0
            [year] => 0
            [w] => 0
            [category_name] => 
            [tag] => 
            [cat] => 
            [tag_id] => 
            [author] => 
            [author_name] => 
            [feed] => 
            [tb] => 
            [meta_value] => 
            [preview] => 
            [s] => 
            [sentence] => 
            [title] => 
            [fields] => all
            [menu_order] => 
             => 
            [category__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_name__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_parent__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_parent__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [author__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [author__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [search_columns] => Array
                (
                )

            [ignore_sticky_posts] => 
            [suppress_filters] => 
            [cache_results] => 1
            [update_post_term_cache] => 1
            [update_menu_item_cache] => 
            [lazy_load_term_meta] => 1
            [update_post_meta_cache] => 1
            [nopaging] => 
            [comments_per_page] => 50
            [no_found_rows] => 
            [taxonomy] => ilsi_committee
            [term_id] => heavymetal
        )

    [tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [taxonomy] => ilsi_committee
                            [terms] => Array
                                (
                                    [0] => heavymetal
                                )

                            [field] => name
                            [operator] => IN
                            [include_children] => 1
                        )

                )

            [relation] => AND
            [table_aliases:protected] => Array
                (
                    [0] => wp_term_relationships
                )

            [queried_terms] => Array
                (
                    [ilsi_committee] => Array
                        (
                            [terms] => Array
                                (
                                    [0] => heavymetal
                                )

                            [field] => name
                        )

                )

            [primary_table] => wp_posts
            [primary_id_column] => ID
        )

    [meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => _ilsi_date
                        )

                    [1] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [key] => _ilsi_type
                                    [value] => book
                                    [compare] => =
                                )

                            [relation] => OR
                        )

                    [relation] => AND
                )

            [relation] => AND
            [meta_table] => wp_postmeta
            [meta_id_column] => post_id
            [primary_table] => wp_posts
            [primary_id_column] => ID
            [table_aliases:protected] => Array
                (
                    [0] => wp_postmeta
                    [1] => mt1
                )

            [clauses:protected] => Array
                (
                    [wp_postmeta] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => _ilsi_date
                            [compare] => =
                            [compare_key] => =
                            [alias] => wp_postmeta
                            [cast] => CHAR
                        )

                    [mt1] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => _ilsi_type
                            [value] => book
                            [compare] => =
                            [compare_key] => =
                            [alias] => mt1
                            [cast] => CHAR
                        )

                )

            [has_or_relation:protected] => 
        )

    [date_query] => 
    [request] => SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  wp_posts.ID
					 FROM wp_posts  LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id) INNER JOIN wp_postmeta ON ( wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id )  INNER JOIN wp_postmeta AS mt1 ON ( wp_posts.ID = mt1.post_id )
					 WHERE 1=1  AND ( 
  wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (602)
) AND ( 
  wp_postmeta.meta_key = '_ilsi_date' 
  AND 
  ( 
    ( mt1.meta_key = '_ilsi_type' AND mt1.meta_value = 'book' )
  )
) AND ((wp_posts.post_type = 'publication' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled')))
					 GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
					 ORDER BY wp_postmeta.meta_value DESC
					 LIMIT 0, 5
    [posts] => Array
        (
        )

    [post_count] => 0
    [current_post] => -1
    [before_loop] => 
    [in_the_loop] => 
    [comment_count] => 0
    [current_comment] => -1
    [found_posts] => 0
    [max_num_pages] => 0
    [max_num_comment_pages] => 0
    [is_single] => 
    [is_preview] => 
    [is_page] => 
    [is_archive] => 1
    [is_date] => 
    [is_year] => 
    [is_month] => 
    [is_day] => 
    [is_time] => 
    [is_author] => 
    [is_category] => 
    [is_tag] => 
    [is_tax] => 1
    [is_search] => 
    [is_feed] => 
    [is_comment_feed] => 
    [is_trackback] => 
    [is_home] => 
    [is_privacy_policy] => 
    [is_404] => 
    [is_embed] => 
    [is_paged] => 
    [is_admin] => 
    [is_attachment] => 
    [is_singular] => 
    [is_robots] => 
    [is_favicon] => 
    [is_posts_page] => 
    [is_post_type_archive] => 
    [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 3ea6105d21c557f4ef2b3a9d8cc9bb75
    [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 
    [thumbnails_cached] => 
    [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => 
    [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => 
    [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => query_vars_hash
            [1] => query_vars_changed
        )

    [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => init_query_flags
            [1] => parse_tax_query
        )

    [query_cache_key:WP_Query:private] => wp_query:672316d58e2490dc4c3f6cbda7d36839
)

Open Science

Aligned with IAFNS’ commitment to open science practices, this project has been added to the IAFNS Collection on the Open Science Framework. Note: this link redirects you to an external website.

Other Projects Supported by the Committee

Advancing Exposure Assessment for Food Contaminants Through Implementation of Probabilistic Modeling

Probabilistic Modeling for Food Contaminant Risk Assessment Advancing Exposure Assessment for Food Contaminants Through Implementation of Probabilistic Modeling Risk assessments for foods, ingredients and additives […]

Evaluating the Association between Dietary Exposure to Inorganic Arsenic on Health Outcomes for the US Population

Chronic adverse health effects have been observed with exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic. The health effects related to lower levels inorganic arsenic exposure […]

Load More