Estimated Long-Term Dietary Exposure to Cadmium from Consumption of Spinach in the United States: A Probabilistic Assessment

As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Closer to Zero initiative, a toxicological reference value (TRV) for oral dietary exposure to Cd was established. Dietary exposure to Cd typically occurs at low levels over a pro-longed time period. With increased focus on food sources, it is necessary to refine the risk assessment process to quantify potential health risk from dietary exposure to Cd with greater precision. This study focused on dietary exposure to Cd from spinach consumption. A probabilistic method of bridging the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 24-hour dietary recalls and the National Eating Trends frequency data to estimate long-term (usual) spinach consumption was applied to estimate longer term (i.e., chronic) intake among the general U.S. population and young children (0-6 years). The resulting consumption distribution was combined with a database of Cd levels representative of spinach grown in the U.S. from 2014-2015 and 2017 to estimate long-term dietary exposure to Cd from spinach consumption. Mean dietary exposure to Cd ranged from 0.006 to 0.026 μg/kg bw/day and 0.018 to 0.110 μg/kg bw/day among the U.S. population and young children, respectively. Exposure estimates from spinach consumption alone were below the FDA TRV range. •Long-term dietary exposure to Cd from spinach alone was well below FDA’s TRV. (79 characters)•Long-term exposure to Cd from spinach was estimated using a probabilistic model.•(82 Characters)•Exposure to Cd ranged from 0.006 to 0.026 μg/kg bw/day among the U.S. population. (84 characters)•Exposure to Cd ranged from 0.018 to 0.110 μg/kg bw/day among young children. (79 characters)