Risk assessment of dietary cadmium exposure in the Norwegian population

The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) has at the request of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority conducted a risk assessment dietary cadmium exposure in the Norwegian population. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority intends to use the risk assessment as a basis for the Norwegian contribution to the ongoing legislative work in the EU and to consider the necessity to adjust the existing national dietary advices or to issue new ones. VKM concludes that it can be expected that cadmium exposure among adults in Norway is within the range previously identified by EFSA, and close to the exposure estimated for Sweden. VKM is of the opinion that long-term cadmium exposure above the TWI as result from the regular diet in adults is unlikely in Norway, but that exceedance might occur from the additional consumption of food items with high cadmium concentrations, in particular brown meat of crabs. In dietary exposure estimates from EFSA, toddlers and other children have mean cadmium exposure exceeding the TWI, due to their higher food consumption relative to the body weight. Based on this, VKM expects that the mean dietary cadmium exposure in toddlers and children may exceed the TWI also in Norway.NO; en; vkm@vkm.n