Gunyoung Lee

Safety assessment of 16 sweeteners for the Korean population using dietary intake monitoring and poundage method

ABSTRACT A sweetener is a food additive that imparts a sweet taste to food products. Sweeteners have been increasingly used in Korea since the approval of sodium saccharin and d-sorbitol in 1962. Unlike food contaminants, humans are exposed to food additives only through the consumption of processed food products. For exposure assessments of sweeteners, the dietary intakes of food products containing acesulfame-K, aspartame, saccharin-Na, and sucralose were determined, and the resulting calculated estimated daily intake (EDI) values were compared directly with each additive’s ADI. The poundage method was used to calculate the daily intake per capita for 12 additional sweeteners, such as lactitol, for which appropriate analytical methods for food products do not exist. The risk, as evaluated by comparing the EDI with the ADI, was determined to be 2.9% for acesulfame-K, 0.8% for aspartame, 3.6% for saccharin-Na, 4.3% for steviol glycosides, and 2.1% for sucralose. No hazardous effect was predicted for the other 11 sweeteners, including lactitol.

Health Risk Assessment of Lead in the Republic of Korea

The purpose of this study was to estimate the daily exposure to lead due to food ingestion, air inhalation, and soil ingestion in the Republic of Koreas general population, and to evaluate the level of risk associated with the current lead exposure level using the proportional daily dose (3–4 μg/kg body weight/day) corresponding to the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) suggested by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives as the toxicological tolerance level. The estimation of the daily exposure to lead via three pathways including food, soil ingestion and air inhalation was conducted as a chronic exposure assessment. For the lead exposure assessment through dietary intake, 1,389 lead residue data for 45 commodities investigated by the Korea Food and Drug Administration during the period 1995–2000 were utilized (KFDA 1996, 1997, 1998). Six hundred seventy-two air monitoring data from 7 major cities during the period 1993–2000 and 4,500 soil residue data at 1,500 sites during the period 1999–2001 were considered for the lead exposure assessment involving air inhalation and soil ingestion, respectively. The total daily exposure to lead was estimated by combining dietary intake, inhaled amount and soil intake corresponding to the typical activity of the general population, which was treated as a group of adults with a body weight of 60 kg. For risk characterization, the daily exposure to lead was compared with the toxicological tolerance level. The level of risk due to lead exposure was calculated using the hazard ratio (HR). The dietary intake of lead was 9.71 × 10−4 mg/kg/day and the total daily exposure level, including air inhalation and soil ingestion, was 9.97 × 10−4 mg/kg/day. The exposure contributions of foods, air and soil induced from the percentage of each media to the total daily exposure were 97.4%, 2.1% and 0.5%, respectively. Of the different commodity groups, the highest contribution to the total exposure came from grain, which represented 47.7% of the total. Additional exposure to lead occurs in certain population groups due to the use of tobacco, alcoholic beverages, and the intake of other foods, all factors not considered in this study. Through the comparison of the daily exposure to lead with the tolerance level based on the PTWI, the hazard ratio was estimated as being 0.25–0.33. This value implies that no increase in blood lead level is to be expected in the general population at the current lead exposure levels.

Simultaneous determination of sodium iron chlorophyllin and sodium copper chlorophyllin in food using high-performance liquid chromatography and ultra-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

A simultaneous method for analyzing sodium iron chlorophyllin (SIC) and sodium copper chlorophyllin (SCC) using high-performance liquid chromatography was developed. This method employed an Inertsil ODS-2 column and diode array detection at 395 nm, using methanol-water (97:3 and 80:20, v/v) containing 1% acetic acid as the mobile phase. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to identify the main components of SIC and SCC as Fe-isochlorine e4 and Cu-isochlorine e4, respectively. The limits of detection and quantitation of SIC were 1.2 and 4.1 mg/kg, respectively, while those of SCC were 1.4 and 4.8 mg/kg, respectively. For intraday and interday tests, the SIC recoveries from candy ranged from 81% to 101%, while SCC recoveries ranged from 100% to 109%. The developed method can be applied to the rapid determination of SIC and SCC in candy.

Establishment and Validation of an Optimized Analytical Method for Sodium Copper Chlorophyllin in Food Using HPLC and LC/MS

본 연구는 우리나라에서 식품 착색료로 이용되고 있는 동클로로필린 나트륨의 최적 분석법을 개발하기 위하여 수행되었다. 제외국의 동 클로로필린 나트륨 분석법을 검토하여 식품 중 동 클로로필린 나트륨 추출방법, HPLC-PDA를 이용한 기기분석 조건, LC/MS를 이용한 동 클로로필린 나트륨 유도체 분석을 통하여 동 클로로필린 나트륨 최적 분석법을 확립하고 분석법의 타당성을 검토한 결과는 다음과 같다. 동 클로로필린 나트륨은 Inertsil ODS-2 column과 1% 초산을 함유한 메탄올-물(97:3, v/v)을 이동상으로 HPLCPDA를 이용하여 405 nm에서 분석할 때 우수한 분리능과 머무름 시간, 재현성이 확보된 피크를 얻을 수 있었다. LC/MS를 이용하여 동 클로로필린 나트륨을 이루는 피크를 분석한 결과 동 이소클로린 e4가 주 피크의 구성성분임을 확인할 수 있었다. 확립된 분석법의 타당성을 검증하기 위해 직선성, 검출한계, 정량한계, 정밀도, 정확도, 회수율 및 실험실 간 교차검증을 실시한 결과, 직선성은 0~700 mg/kg범위에서 R2=0.9999로 나타났고, 검출한계와 정량한계는 각각 0.1 mg/kg과 0.4 mg/kg으로 나타났다. 정밀도는 일간분석과 일내분석이 각각 1.6~8.1과 0.5~2.6으로 나타났고, 정확도는 일간분석과 일내분석이 각각 89.2~102.2%와 90.4~100.5%로 나타나 국제표준화기구의 기준에 근접하였다. 또한, 본 연구에서 개발한 전처리법으로 식품 중 함유된 동 클로로필린 나트륨 회수율 분석을 실시한 결과 수용성식품(캔디류)의 경우는 104~109%, 유지류(샐러드드레싱)의 경우 농도별로 104~119%로 나타나 식품 매트릭스별 회수율 평균이 95% 이상으로 매우 우수하였다. 실험실 간 교차검증을 실시한 결과 세 기관의 R2값은 모두 0.998 이상으로 좋았으며, 각 실험실 회수율에 대한 RSD 값이 농도별로 6~16%로 나타나 향후 공인 분석 방법으로 활용 가능하다는 것을 확인할 수 있었다.

Improved method for the determination of 12 non-nutritive sweeteners and monitoring in various foods using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

ABSTRACT An improved and highly sensitive method was developed and validated for the determination of 12 (7 permitted and 5 non-permitted in Korea) non-nutritive sweeteners in various foods using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-tandem mass spectrometry. The chromatographic separation was performed on an Xbridge BEH C18 column (3 mm × 100 mm, 2.5 μm) with gradient elution using 10 mM ammonium acetate in water and 10 mM ammonium acetate in methanol. Sample preparation consisted of simple dilution, homogenisation, centrifugation and purification with a C18 cartridge prior to analysis. The relative matrix effect (%ME) was within ±20% for all sweeteners. The method also showed good linearity (R2 > 0.99). The limit of detection and limit of quantification values in sample were in the range of 0.02–2.66 and 0.06–8.05 mg kg−1, respectively. The recoveries at three concentration levels ranged between 80% and 119%, with relative standard deviation values below 10%. In addition, the expanded uncertainties determined for 12 sweeteners in 5 different food matrices were confirmed to be <14%. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the analysis of sweeteners in 681 food samples purchased in Korea, Australia and Turkey. These results demonstrate that the method is suitable for the simultaneous determination of multiple-sweeteners in a variety of foods.