The footprint of dioxins in globally traded pork meat

• Published in: iScience
• Main Authors: Kaijie Chen, Tao Huang, Xiaodong Zhang, Xinrui Liu, Yufei Huang, Linfei Wang, Yuan Zhao, Hong Gao, Shu Tao, Junfeng Liu, Xiaohu Jian, Alexey Gusev, Jianmin Ma
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021
• Subjects: Environmental science; Pollution; Agricultural market; Food science; Science; Q; Canada; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103255; https://doaj.org/article/88191268a4494f0497fa50a604d25957

Summary: The bioaccumulation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PCDD/Fs), known as dioxins, in fatty meat is one of primary pathways of entry into the human body, but levels of human exposure to dioxins in fatty meat subject to global trade are unknown. We show high dioxin estimated dietary intake (EDI) via pork consumption in Europe, the United States, and China, owing to stronger dioxin environmental contamination and high pork consumption in these countries. The dioxin risk transfer embodied in pork trade is mostly significant in high-latitude countries and regions of Canada, Russia, and Greenland because these regions with low dioxin environmental levels import large amounts of pork meat from more severely dioxin-contaminated Europe and the United States. We demonstrate that global pig feed trading decreases the exposure of pork consumers to dioxins via the import of feed from countries with low dioxin environmental contamination by pig breeding countries.