Decreasing concentrations of PCDD/Fs in pork based on Korean monitoring in years 2002 and 2005

Abstract

The congener-specific profiles of PCDD/Fs in domestic and imported pork monitored in South Korea in years 2002 and 2005 were compared. Total concentrations of PCDD/Fs decreased from 2002 to 2005, but displayed a similar pattern of congeners. In neither 2002 nor 2005 were either 2,3,7,8-TCDD or 2,3,7,8-TCDF detected. The mean concentrations of PCDD/Fs in domestic and imported pork were 8.29 pg g−1 fat from 106 samples in 2002 and 4.03 pg g−1 fat from 90 samples in 2005. However, the contribution of PCDDs increased about four times with respect to toxic equivalent (TEQ) level and about 1.5 times in terms of concentration in the monitoring results from 2005 compared with 2002, and the PCDF contribution decreased substantially. This suggests that the main source of dioxins in pork probably changed to a larger portion coming from animal feeds than environmental sources of exposure. The estimated human intakes of PCDD/Fs originating from pork in the South Korean diet were calculated as 0.029 and 0.019 pg TEQ kg−1 body weight day−1 for the upper bound exposure in 2002 and 2005, respectively. The values represent low intakes when compared with the both Korean tolerable daily intake (TDI) (4 pg TEQ kg−1 body weight day−1) and World Health Organization TDI (1–4 pg TEQ kg−1 body weight day−1).