Assessment of dietary cadmium exposure in kindergarten children from Zadar County, Croatia

Children are prone to the adverse effects of toxic metals, including cadmium, due to specific physiological needs during growth and development. We evaluated the level of cadmium in daily meals offered to children (N =1000, age 4 to 7) who attended public nurseries in the coastal area, where they received 80 % of their daily dietary needs. The duplicate portion technique for sampling total food and beverage during 15 consecutive workdays over three seasons (during 2008) was used. Cadmium was analysed in representative samples by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The estimated levels of ingested cadmium in the meals (expressed as average daily cadmium concentrations) in winter, spring and autumn were: 2.40±1.02, 1.53±1.36, and 0.57±0.38 μg/kg. Based upon a comparison with the dietary exposure of an average child consumer to cadmium, which is between 2.56 and 3.46 μg/kg bw a week (according to EFSA, 2011), we concluded that cadmium levels in the meals can be considered safe.