Abstract
Cocoa contains aluminium and cadmium as environmental contaminants while concentrations are supposed to be country of origin-related. Integrating origin in dietary exposure assessment could refine calculations. Averages or higher percentiles of concentrations in cocoa powder from German Food Monitoring (GFM) and cocoa consumption from the German National Nutrition Survey II (NVS II) were combined in standard scenarios. Additional origin-related scenarios used concentration data grouped into origin A (lower concentrations) and origin B (higher concentrations) as plausible origin information was rare. The most conservative standard scenario resulted in the highest intake estimates for aluminium and cadmium with 0.152 mg/week/kg BW and 0.363 μg/week/kg BW and covered the origin influence calculated in origin-related scenarios. Having plausible origin information would help to refine exposure assessment as it is exemplarily shown here that origin-related lower intake estimates are possible. Using the Eurostat database and the Mintel Global New Product Database (GNPD) generated more origin information for products available on the German market. For Germany, cocoa beans, cocoa powder and cocoa mass were mainly sourced in Côte d'Ivoire, while the Netherlands was the main distributor. Packages of cocoa powders were sourced from different origins.
Highlights
Aluminium and cadmium are contaminants within the food supply chain and they are especially contained in higher mean concentrations in cocoa and cocoa-based products which is relevant for dietary exposure assessment [1,2,3,4].There are indications that aluminium and cadmium concentrations in cocoa products are connected with the primary geographical origin of the cocoa beans [1, 5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
A comparative consideration of standard exposure and origin-related intake linked to lower and higher aluminium and cadmium concentrations from cocoa powder used in various food items was done in Figs 1 and 2
Scenario 8 resulted in 0.136 mg/week/kg BW (Grouping 1) and 0.142 mg/week/kg BW (Grouping 2) for aluminium, in the case of cadmium, it resulted in 0.203 μg/week/kg BW (Grouping 1) and 0.230 μg/week/kg BW (Grouping 2)
Summary
Aluminium and cadmium are contaminants within the food supply chain and they are especially contained in higher mean concentrations in cocoa and cocoa-based products which is relevant for dietary exposure assessment [1,2,3,4]. There are indications that aluminium and cadmium concentrations in cocoa products are connected with the primary geographical origin of the cocoa beans [1, 5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Cocoa origin related to dietary aluminium and cadmium exposure
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