In June 2022, the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) released a report providing more guidance on how the country can monitor exposure to potentially hazardous chemical substances within the Norwegian food system. This update provides more information on the substances of concern VKM first identified in a 2019 report. It further advises on the sampling procedure and sample size the Norwegian Food Safety Authority should undertake to accurately assess exposure and regulatory compliance within Norway. VKM included some contaminants from food processing as well as from food packaging as ones important to monitor.
In 2019, VKM combined Norwegian dietary surveys with health hazard information of food contaminants to create a ranking of food-contaminant pairs it considered most important to monitor within the country. Substances that VKM identified as critical for monitoring within commonly consumed foods due to contamination from food processing equipment were acrylamide (CAS 79-06-1), 3-monochloropropane-1,2-dioland (CAS 96-24-2) and its fatty acid esters, glycidyl fatty acid esters, furans, heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, FPF reported). Substances of concern from food packaging identified by VKM were bisphenols and melamine.
Results presented by Robert Barouki and Elena Tarroja at the final meeting of the EU Human Biomonitoring Project (HBM4EU) in April 2022 showed all adults in Europe have measurable levels of bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7) within their bodies while half are further exposed to BPA substitutes BPS (CAS 5397-34-2) and/or BPF (CAS 620-92-8).
Reference
VKM (June 9, 2022). “Food and chemical substances relevant for monitoring.” (pdf)
Robert Barouki and Elena Tarroja (April 2022). “Bisphenol data from Europe: Results and policy implications.” ownCloud
Read more
VKM (June 9, 2022). “Risk ranking of undesirable substances in food – which foods are the most relevant to monitor?”
VKM (November 2019). “Ranking of substances for monitoring in foods, drinks, and dietary supplements – based on risks and knowledge gaps.” (in Norwegian)
Inger-Lise Steffensen (November 6, 2019). “VKM’s ranking of substances for monitoring in foods.” (pdf)
Mathisen, GH. et al. (2020). “A ranking method of chemical substances in foods for prioritisation of monitoring, based on health risk and knowledge gaps.” Food Research International. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109499
