Assessment of estimated daily intake of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol from soy sauce in Korea.

Soy sauces collected from the Korean market were determined for 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) and daily intake of 3-MCPD through the consumption of soy sauce was estimated. Thirty-one samples were chosen based on a market share in 2017. The amount of 3-MCPD varied from not detected to 54.97 µg/kg with a mean value of 11.62 µg/kg. Seven soy sauces, which corresponded to 23% of the analysed samples, exceeded 20 µg/kg that is a maximum limit established by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea. Daily intake of 3-MCPD was estimated as 1.22 ng/kg body weight (bw) for average consumers and 4.47 ng/kg bw for 95th high consumers, respectively. The exposure for average consumers amounted to 0.03-0.11% of the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI, 4 µg/kg bw). This indicates that the exposure to 3-MCPD from soy sauce is of low concern in the Korean population. © The Korean Society of Food Science and Technology 2020.