SURVEILLANCE OF BRITISH FOODS FOR PCDDS AND PCDFS

As part of an extensive programme to survey the levels of PCDDs and PCDFs in UK foods, some analyses of retail fish and of cow's milk have been completed. For eight samples of retail fish the total level of toxic equivalents (calculated on a wet weight basis using NATO/CCMS I-TEF values) had a mean of 0.74 ng/kg and range 0.15-1.84 ng/kg. This mean value corresponds to an average intake of 15 pg/day. For seven samples of cow's milk obtained from farms well removed from potential sources of PCDDs and PCDFs the mean total level of toxic equivalents on a whole milk basis was 0.045 ng/kg with a range 0.034-0.052 ng/kg. This mean value corresponds to an average intake of 10 pg/day. Milk from four farms in areas containing potential sources gave levels in the range 0.12-0.25 ng/kg, corresponding to intakes of 26-55 pg/day. In a study of migration from paperboard cartons into milk about 6% of the 2,3,7,8-TCDF content of the paperboard had been transfered to the milk after 7 days refrigerated storage. For most examples of cartons studied migration made only a minor contribution to the total PCDD and PCDF content of the milk. © 1990.