Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances in foods and the dietary exposure among Taiwan general population and pregnant women

This study quantified five perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and two perfluorosulfonicacids in cereals, meats, seafood, eggs, pork liver, and milk in Taiwan using ultraperformanceliquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and evaluated the dietaryexposure of the general population and pregnant women using per capita consumptionand a questionnaire, respectively. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and PFCAs of 10e12 carbons were found in almost all of the samples in considerable concentrations in riceand pork liver, reaching as high as 283 ng/g (PFOA in pork liver); the levels are two to threeorders of magnitude higher than previous reports. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), themost frequently mentioned perfluoroalkyl substance, was rarely detected in many fooditems (detection frequencies <20% in rice, flour, pork, chicken, salmon, squid, eggs, andmilk) at <0.4 ng/g, except for beef, pork liver and some seafood (detection frequencies:100%, GMs: 0.05e3.52 ng/g). Compared to populations in Western countries, people inTaiwan are exposed to much more perfluorohexanoic acid, PFOA, perfluorodecanoic acid,and perfluoroundecanoic acid (11.2, 85.1, 44.2, and 4.45 ng/kg b.w./day, respectively),mainly due to the higher contaminations in food. The exposure of 8.0 mg PFOA/person/dayin the 95 percentile of pregnant women was due to their frequent consumption of porkliver.