The purpose of this study was to establish food ingestion factors needed to assess exposure to contaminants through food ingestion. The study reclassified the raw data of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2001 into 12 subcategories including grain products, meat products, fish and shellfish, and vegetables for international comparability of exposure evaluation. The criteria for food intake calculation were unified according to the characteristics of food groups, and recommended values for food ingestion factors were calculated through moisture correction and recategorization of cooked, processed, and mixed foods for each group. The average intake rate for grain and grain products was 6.25 g/kg-d per capita and the men's intake rate was approximately 8% higher than that of the women. The average intake rate of meat and meat products was 1.62 g/kg-d per capita and the men's intake rate was 30% higher than that of the women, on average. The average intake rate of fish and shellfish was 1.53 g/kg-d per capita, and the age groups of 1 to 2 and 3 to 6 recorded higher capita intake rates than other age groups, 2.62 g/kg-d and 2.25 g/kg-d, respectively. The average intake rate of vegetables was 6.47 g/kg-d per capita, with the age group of 1 to 2 recording the highest per capita intake rate of 9.79 g/kg-d and that of 13 to 19 recording the lowest mean. The study also offers recommended values for food ingestion factors of other food groups by gender, age, and region. The food ingestion exposure factors will need future updates in consideration of ongoing changes in food consumption behavior.
Keywords: Exposure factors; Food; Risk assessment.