Determination and risk characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of tea by using the Margin of Exposure (MOE) approach

Joon-Goo Lee; Taesuk Lim; Sheen-Hee Kim; Dong-Hyun Kang; Hae-Jung Yoon

doi:10.1007/s10068-018-0400-7

Determination and risk characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of tea by using the Margin of Exposure (MOE) approach

Food Sci Biotechnol. 2018 Jun 28;27(6):1843-1856. doi: 10.1007/s10068-018-0400-7. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Authors

Joon-Goo Lee^{1

2}, Taesuk Lim¹, Sheen-Hee Kim¹, Dong-Hyun Kang², Hae-Jung Yoon¹

Affiliations

¹ 1Food Contaminants Division, Department of Food Safety Evaluation, National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Osong-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do 363-700 South Korea.
² 2Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Agricultural Biomaterials and Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742 South Korea.

Abstract

Tea is one of the most frequently consumed drinks due to its favourite taste and the health benefit. Tea is produced by several processes and drying is very important step to develop the flavour and destroys the enzymes in tea. However, during drying tea, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons some of which are carcinogen and genotoxin are naturally produced. The risk of PAHs by drinking tea was characterized by determining contents of 4 PAHs in tea. 4 PAHs including Benz(a)anthracene (BaA), Chrysene (CHR), Benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF) and Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) were investigated by GC-MS in total 468 tea products, which were contaminated up to 4.63 ng g^-1. Mate tea was the most highly contaminated by BaA, CHR, BbF and BaP and followed by Solomon's seal and Chrysanthemum. The Margin of Exposures calculated by the concentration of BaA, CHR, BbF and BaP and consumption amount of tea were higher than 10,000, and the risk of PAHs in tea were low concern to public health.

Keywords: Determination; Margin of Exposure (MOE); Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); Risk characterization; Tea.