Exposure Assessment

41.               Exposure to CIT was determined for women of child-bearing age (16-49 years), using consumption data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) and occurrence data from the 2014 Total Diet Study (TDS) (Bates et al., 2014, 2016, 2020; Roberts et al., 2018, FSA, 2014).

42.               Occurrence data from all food samples analysed for CIT were below the limit of quantification (LOQ) and the exposures calculated are based on the lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) values. As the LB is zero for a commodity, it cannot be determined whether a commodity makes a contribution to the overall exposure.

43.               Mean total exposure to CIT for women of child-bearing age ranged from 0-17 ng/kg bw/day, whilst exposure in high consumers (97.5^th percentile) ranged from 0-43 ng/kg bw/day. The food groups with the highest UB values were tea with a mean value of 6.2 ng/kg bw/day and a 97.5^th percentile value of 23 ng/kg bw/day; instant coffee with a mean value of 2.6 and 97.5^th percentile value of 17 ng/kg bw/day; wine with a mean value of 1.0 ng/kg bw/day, and 97.5^th percentile value of 6.5 ng/kg bw/day.

44.               The carryover of CIT into animal products was not included in the exposure assessment but would not be expected to significantly add to the exposure under normal, non-experimental, circumstances.