Conclusions
The results from this study can be utilised in risk assessments of
inorganic arsenic. The EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food
Chain (CONTAM) stated that arsenic speciation data was needed
for different food commodities, and furthermore they declared that
there was a need for well validated methods for determining the
inorganic arsenic levels in foodstuffs. Our study is one of the first
to report inorganic arsenic levels in rice-based baby foods. In particular,
these experiments provide additional information on the
relationship between total and inorganic arsenic levels as well as
their correlations as evaluated in rice-based baby foods which
are very popular in Europe. It is notable that five of the products
analysed exceeded the limit set by People’s Republic of China for
inorganic arsenic in rice. Due to the fact that the intake figures
are around the lower BMDL0.1 value in all age groups even though
only the intake of inorganic arsenic from rice-based baby food and
long grain rice was evaluated, the future goal will be the cumulative
intake assessment of inorganic arsenic in different age groups