Statistical analysis of chlorate occurrence data in food

In accordance with Article 29 (1) (a) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, the European Commission asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2014  for a scientific opinion on the risks for human health related to the presence of chlorate in food from all sources, taking also into account its presence in drinking water. The opinion found that “Chronic exposure of adolescent and adult age classes did not exceed  the  TDI.  However, at the 95th  percentile  the  TDI  was exceeded  in  all  surveys in ‘Infants’  and ‘Toddlers’ and  in  some  surveys in ‘Other children’.  Chronic exposures  are  of  concern  in  particular  in  younger age groups with mild or moderate iodine deficiency.” Food manufacturers have started to optimise their manufacturing processes to lower chlorate residue level in foods and the European Commission in 2017 provided a revised Guidance document on good hygiene practices regarding the use of chlorinated disinfectant. It can therefore be expected that chlorate levels in foods are now lower compared with the levels found in the samples from 2011 to 2014. The European Commission (EC) requested EFSA in 2018 to provide an updated statistical analysis on chlorate occurrence levels in foods. A set of 14 Excel tables containing the statistical analysis of reported results for the analysis of chlorates from pesticides monitoring and contaminants monitoring programmes have been prepared. The data is presented at three levels of aggregation using FoodEx product categories. Analysis was performed for two time points, the 2011-2017 dataset contained 15,741 valid results and the 2015-2017 dataset contained 28,033 valid results. Mean, median and percentile (75th, 90th, 95th) for lower bound, middle bound and upper bound concentration values were calculated. Caution should be applied to percentile values calculated from a limited number of results.