DIOXIN AND FURAN INTAKE BY BABIES VIA COMMERCIAL BABY FOODS AS COMPARED TO THE INTAKE BY HUMAN-MILK

39 samples of commercial baby food, including powder products based on milk, soya and on grain as well as ready-to-serve meals were analysed for their content of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDDs/Fs). The daily intake of international toxicity equivalents (1-TE) for a 6 months old baby with a body weight (b. w.) of 7.4 kg, expressed as pg I-TE/kg b. w., was found to be 0.24-15.7 (average 3.05) for powders on milk basis and 0.04-0.18 (average 0.11) for powders on soya basis. The intake via powders based on grain, assuming that for the preparation whole milk (3.5% fat) containing 2 ng I-TE/kg milk fat (background level) was used, was found to be 6.07-15.9 (average 10.7). The intake by this product group was essentially caused by the assumed content of 2 pg I-TE/kg milk fat and thus depends much on the real PCDD/F content of the milk used for preparation. The intake by ready-to-serve meals was 0.5-8.47 (average 4.54). The arithmetical average of all the products analysed showed a daily intake of 5.0 pg I-TE/kg b. w. The distribution pattern of the amounts of intake showed more similarity to a logarithmical normal distribution than to a normal distribution (Gaussian curve). Therefore the geometrical average is more suitable to calculate the mean daily intake than the arithmetical average. Based on the geometrical average, the daily intake was calculated to 2.5 pg I-TE/kg b. w. In contrary, the mean daily intake via human milk is 161 pg I-TE/kg b. w. in the Federal Republic of Germany. This means that the intake of I-TE by a nutrition via the commercial baby foods analysed is reduced by a factor of 64 compared to a nutrition via mean contaminated human milk.