Background levels and dietary intake of PCDD/Fs in domestic and imported meat in South Korea

A survey was conducted in South Korea to determine residual levels and dietary intake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) from meat. Altogether 119 domestic and 164 imported samples of beef, pork, and chicken were examined. The mean levels of PCDD/Fs in upper bound were 0.21, 0.22, and 0.04 pg WHO-TEQ/g fat for beef, pork, and chicken, respectively. The low level of PCDD/Fs in chicken probably resulted from the low fat content in the samples used. The samples were separated into domestic and imported products in order to investigate the sources of contamination. PCDFs were the more dominant congeners in domestic beef and were similar to those found from emission of incineration. However, the congener profiles of domestic beef and incineration were difficult to compare because the environmental fate and animal metabolism were involved. The upper bound dietary intake of PCDD/Fs from beef, pork and chicken was calculated to be 0.04 pg/WHO-TEQ/kg bw/day. The combined consumption of beef, pork, and chicken was found to be 84.8 g per day for a person weighing 60 kg and represented 5.7% of their total daily food intake.