Development of a mercury database for food commonly consumed by Koreans

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a mercury database for food commonly consumed by Koreans. Methods: Target foods for a mercury database were selected from dietary survey data of the 2007-2009 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Data for mercury contents of foods were collected through literature review. Among 702 food items reported by 24 hr dietary recall method, the contents of mercury for 300 food items were selected with systematic evaluation from the literature, which provided analytical values, and those of 56 food items were imputed by using a conversion factor. Results: The mercury database developed in this study covered 50.7% of all kinds of consumed foods and 95.1% of total amount of food intake reported by 2007-2009 KNHANES. In the database, the geometric mean of mercury contents in food items was the highest in the fishes and shellfishes group (41.13 μg/kg, n = 101) followed by mushrooms (18.93 μg/kg, n = 12) and seaweeds (5.92 μg/kg, n = 14), and the lowest in the meats group (0.15 μg/kg, n = 17). Conclusion: The developed mercury database can be used to estimate the dietary mercury exposure of Korean people, and the method for development of a mercury database would be helpful to researchers in development of a new database for other food borne hazardous substances.