Rare earths and other elements content in hen eggs sold in Italy: comparison among main types of farming methods and consumer's health risk assessment.

Recently, in Italy, consumers are choosing hen eggs from farming systems with higher ethical value, due to their perception of a related higher quality and safety. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the existence of differences in elemental content in Italian eggs from organic, barn, and caged hen farming methods and to determine the related potential consumer exposure risk to inorganic contaminants due to the consumption of eggs. One hundred seventy-six egg samples were collected and analyzed using Q-ICP-MS to investigate the content of 14 elements (Pb, As, Hg, Cd, Tl, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, Se, Co, Ni, V, and Cr) and 13 rare earth elements (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb). The scenarios of exposure to rare earth and other elements from eggs were estimated for three age groups of consumers. The daily intake values were always lower than the respective safety reference values. In conclusion, Italian hen eggs contain low levels of rare earth and other elements, and therefore, their consumption does not represent a risk of exposure. Finally, no significant differences in contaminants between conventional and organic farming methods were found.

A new method for determining PFASs by UHPLC-HRMS (Q-Orbitrap): Application to PFAS analysis of organic and conventional eggs sold in Italy.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants with the ability to uptake to food and feed. Among food, fish, fruits and eggs are considered as major contributors to human dietary exposure. A new method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 18 PFASs in eggs using isotope dilution followed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry. The analysis of 132 samples (organic, barn and caged eggs) was performed. Levels were always close to the detection limits and no significant difference emerged among the 3 groups. The highest PFAS concentration in eggs was used to estimate the dietary exposure of different Italian population groups. As expected, children were more highly exposed than adults due to lower body weight. This data suggests that the recent tolerable weekly intake of 4.4 ng kg-1b.w. could be exceeded when the cumulative intake arising from other food products is considered.

Chlorinated Persistent Organic Pollutants (PCDD/Fs and PCBs) in Loggerhead Sea Turtles Stranded along the Central Adriatic Coast.

Persistent organic pollutants are widespread in the marine environment. They can bioaccumulate and biomagnify in marine organisms through the food web with a potentially toxic effect on living organisms. The sea turtle Caretta caretta is a carnivorous animal with opportunistic feeding behavior. These turtles tend to bioaccumulate pollutants through food, and hence they can be considered an indicator of chemical pollutants in the marine ecosystem. In this study, 44 loggerhead sea turtles were considered, and liver and fat tissue were sampled from each of them to investigate the levels of dioxins (PCDD/Fs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sea turtles and their potential correlation with sex and size in terms of curved carapace length (CCL). Results suggested that these contaminants were easily bioaccumulated, and PCBs were predominant compared to dioxins in both liver and fat tissue. The congener patterns were similar to those found in sea fish. Moreover, there were no differences in the contamination levels between females and males, nor was there a correlation with the size. There is a need to harmonize the methodological approaches to better evaluate the results and trends over time and to monitor the species and indirectly the health status of the marine environment.