A total of 576 samples marketed in China, including maize, maize flour, maize grits and maize meal, was determined for the simultaneous presence of 12 mycotoxins (FB₁, FB₂, FB₃, DON, 3-DON, 15-DON, ZEN, AFB₁, AFB₂, AFG₁, AFG₂ and OTA) using a validated UPLC-MS/MS for multi-mycotoxin method. DON were the most widespread mycotoxins (63%), followed by FB₁ (57%) and ZEN (46%). 78% of the samples was contaminated with at least one of these mycotoxins. Risk assessment indicated that maize and maize-derived food intake does not pose a potential risk for general adult population with respect to individual mycotoxin. However, two or more mycotoxins were detected in 60% of all samples, and a combination of up to seven different mycotoxins was found. A particular attention should be paid to the combined exposure of mycotoxins, in this cases the estimated daily intake might increase greatly due to the high frequency of co-occurrence.

Antibiotics, especially fluoroquinolones, have been exhaustively used in animal husbandry. However, very limited information on the occurrence and exposure assessment of fluoroquinolone residues in chicken and pork in China is available to date. Thus, a total of 1754 chicken samples and 1712 pork samples were collected from 25 provinces in China and tested by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) for residual determination of six common fluoroquinolones. The results revealed that the detection frequencies of fluoroquinolone residues were 3.99% and 1.69% in chicken and pork samples. The overall violation frequencies were 0.68% and 0.41% for chicken and pork. Enrofloxacin and its metabolite ciprofloxacin were found to be the most predominant fluoroquinolones. The occurrence of these antibiotics in different sampling regions and market types was analyzed. The %ADI values of enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin were far less than 100, indicating the health risk associated with the exposure to these aforementioned fluoroquinolone residues via chicken and pork for Chinese children, adolescents, and adults was acceptable. The results provided useful references for Chinese consumers, and helped to appropriately use these antibiotics in poultry and livestock industry.

The contents of perchlorate and chlorate were determined in a total of 278 samples of infant formulas marketed in China. The associated health risk via infant and young child formulas consumption for 0–36 month old children in China was also assessed. The contents of perchlorate and chlorate were measured by a validated method with LC-MS and the limit of detection (LOD) was 1.5 μg kg⁻¹ and 3.0 μg kg⁻¹ for perchlorate and chlorate, respectively. Perchlorate and chlorate were detected in about 85.8% (median 6.92 μg kg⁻¹, maximum 74.20 μg kg⁻¹) and 99.3% (median 52.80 μg kg⁻¹, maximum 2780 μg/kg) of the samples. The exposures of infant and young children to perchlorate from formulas were lower than the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI, 0.7 μg/kg bw/day), which was established by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2015 also proposed a tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 3 μg/kg bw/day for chlorate based on the mean and average concentrations. Only for infants 0–6 month at the 95th percentile did exposures exceed the TDI of 3 μg/day for chlorate. Therefore, the safety of infant and young child formulas is excellent. To our knowledge, this is the first report to assess the exposure of infant and young child formulas in China to perchlorate and chlorate.