Dietary exposure to perfluoroalkyl acids of specific French adult sub-populations: High seafood consumers, high freshwater fish consumers and pregnant women

•The dietary exposure was estimated for 15 perfluoroalkyl acids.•Despite the overestimation, the FFQ remains useful to evaluate the whole diet.•The high fish consumers are the most dietary exposed population.•Fishery products are the main exposure contributors under LB hypothesis.

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are globally found in various media, including food and especially fishery products. In the present study, the dietary exposure to 15 perfluoroalkyl acids was assessed for 3 French adult populations, namely high seafood consumers, high freshwater fish consumers, and pregnant women. Purified food extracts were analysed by LC–MS/MS and PFBA, PFPA, PFHxA, PFHpA, PFOA, PFNA, PFDA, PFUnA, PFTrDA, PFTeDA, PFBS, PFHxS, PFHpS, PFOS and PFDS were monitored and quantified according to the isotope dilution principle. Under lower bound (LB) hypothesis (i.e. contamination values < LOD considered as 0), high freshwater fish consumers appear as the most exposed to PFOS (7.5 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1), PFUnA (1.3 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1), PFDA (0.4 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1) and PFHpS (0.03 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1) while high seafood consumers appear as the most exposed to PFOA (1.2 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1), PFNA (0.2 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1) and PFHxS (0.06 ng.kg− 1 bw.d− 1). For all considered populations, the major exposure contributors are fish, seafood and water under LB hypothesis, while dairy products, bread and crispbread are the main contributors under upper bound (UB) hypothesis. Besides this food exposure assessment, further studies are needed to assess the more global PFAA exposure, taking into account indoor and outdoor air, dust and cutaneous contact, which could be other important contributors for this particular class of chemicals.