Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Exposure assessment and monitoring of formaldehyde in agricultural products for the general Korean population

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Food Science and Biotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Formaldehyde is naturally present as a product of common metabolism in a diverse range of foods, including meat, fish, vegetables, and processed foods, and can also be introduced to food unintentionally due to its ubiquity in the environment. There has been increased interest in dietary exposure to formaldehyde because of its adverse health effects via multiple sources. The aim of this study was to evaluate the formaldehyde levels in various agricultural products and conduct a deterministic exposure assessment for the South Korean population. Formaldehyde levels were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography, with the samples extracted using water and then derivatized with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. The levels of formaldehyde were found to range from 0.006 to 25.6 µg/g in agricultural food products (n = 480). For the deterministic exposure assessment, multiple sources for point estimation were employed, with consumption data taken from the 2017 Korean Nutrition Survey. The mean daily formaldehyde exposure per each person was 127.5 µg for the South Korean, constituting approximately 1.4% of the tolerable daily intake (TDI). The hazard index (the ratio of the entire formaldehyde exposure to the TDI) normally fell within the range from 0.01 to 0.22 based on assumptions employed in the deterministic estimation of dietary intake. Based on these estimates, the exposure of the general South Korean to formaldehyde was considered to be safe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baan R, Grosse Y, Straif K, Secretan B, El Ghissassi F, Bouvard V, Benbrahim-Tallaa L, Guha N, Freeman C, Galichet L. A review of human carcinogens—part F: chemical agents and related occupations. The Lancet Oncology. 10: 1143-1144 (2009)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baraniak Z, Nagpal DS, Neidert E. Gas chromatographic determination of formaldehyde in maple syrup as 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazone derivative. Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists. 71: 740-741 (1988)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bhowmik S, Begum M, Hossain MA, Rahman M, Alam AN. Determination of formaldehyde in wet marketed fish by HPLC analysis: a negligible concern for fish and food safety in Bangladesh. The Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research. 43: 245-248 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi F, Careri M, Musci M, Mangia A. Fish and food safety: Determination of formaldehyde in 12 fish species by SPME extraction and GC–MS analysis. Food Chemistry. 100: 1049-1053 (2007)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Claeys W, Vleminckx C, Dubois A, Huyghebaert A, Höfte M, Daenens P, Schiffers B. Formaldehyde in cultivated mushrooms: a negligible risk for the consumer. Food Additives and Contaminants. 26: 1265-1272 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cui X, Fang G, Jiang L, Wang S. Kinetic spectrophotometric method for rapid determination of trace formaldehyde in foods. Analytica Chimica Acta. 590: 253-259 (2007)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Bruin YB, Kotzias D, Kephalopoulos S. HEXPOC: human exposure characterization of chemical substances; quantification of exposure routes. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, Luxembourg. pp. 66 (2005)

  • de Oliveira FS, Sousa ET, de Andrade JB. A sensitive flow analysis system for the fluorimetric determination of low levels of formaldehyde in alcoholic beverages. Talanta. 73: 561-566 (2007)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • European Food Safety Authority. Endogenous formaldehyde turnover in humans compared with exogenous contribution from food sources. EFSA Journal. 12(2): 3550 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO and WHO. Codex Alimentarius Commission Procedural Manual. 28th ed. FAO and WHO, Rome, Italy (2023)

  • Handbook on sample preparation for heavy metal testing in agricultural products, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), https://www.mfds.go.kr/brd/m_231/down.do?brd_id=data0020&seq=33054&data_tp=A&file_seq=17 (2014)

  • Hornshøj BH, Kobbelgaard S, Blakemore WR, Stapelfeldt H, Bixler HJ, Klinger M. Quantification of free formaldehyde in carrageenan and processed Eucheuma seaweed using high-performance liquid chromatography. Food Additives and Contaminants: Part A. 32(2): 152-160 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IARC. Formaldehyde, 2-Butoxyethanol and 1-tert-Butoxypropan-2-ol. Vol. 88. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Lyon, France. pp. 478–478 (2006)

  • Immaculate J, Jamila P. Quality characteristics including formaldehyde content in selected Sea foods of Tuticorin, southeast coast of India. International Food Research Journal. 25(1): 293-302 (2018)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jung H, Kim S, Yoo K, Lee J. Changes in acetaldehyde and formaldehyde contents in foods depending on the typical home cooking methods. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 414: 125475 (2021)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kimura M, Seki N, Kimura I. Thermodynamic compensation of urea and trimethylamine N-oxide interactions with protein. Biophysical Journal. 85(4): 108-125 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochhar R, Nanda V, Nagi B, Mehta SK. Formaldehyde-induced corrosive gastric cicatrization: case report. Human Toxicology. 5(6): 381-382 (1986)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu JF, Peng JF, Chi YG, Jiang GB. Determination of formaldehyde in shiitake mushroom by ionic liquid-based liquid-phase microextraction coupled with liquid chromatography. Talanta. 65(3): 705-709 (2005)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mason DJ, Sykes MD, Panton SW, Rippon EH. Determination of naturally-occurring formaldehyde in raw and cooked Shiitake mushrooms by spectrophotometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Food Additives and Contaminants. 21(11): 1071-1082 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzotti F, Benabdelkamel H, Di Donna L, Maiuolo L, Napoli A, Sindona G. Assay of tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol in olive oil by tandem mass spectrometry and isotope dilution method. Food Chemistry. 135(3): 1006-1010 (2012)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Study on reducing hazardous materials in foods (HMFs) - Total exposure assessment to 23 HMFs. R&D Report to the Korea Food and Drug Administration. Available at: https://rnd.mfds.go.kr/ (2018)

  • National Nutrition Statistics, Food Consumption Distribution, Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), https://www.khidi.or.kr/nutristat (2017)

  • Nowshad F, Islam MN, Khan MS. Concentration and formation behavior of naturally occurring formaldehyde in foods. Agriculture and Food Security. 7: 1-8 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillippy BQ, Hultin HO. Distribution and some characteristics of trimethylamine N‐oxide (TMAO) demethylase activity of red hake muscle. Journal of Food Biochemistry. 17(4): 235-250 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto GF, Rocha DL, Richter EM, Muñoz RA, Silva SGD. A multicommuted flow system for spectrophotometric determination of formaldehyde in mushroom. Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society. 29: 1400-1405 (2018)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Royse DJ, Schisler LC, Diehle DA. Shiitake mushrooms consumption, production and cultivation. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 10(4): 329-335 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibirny V, Demkiv O, Klepach H, Honchar T, Gonchar M. Alcohol oxidase-and formaldehyde dehydrogenase-based enzymatic methods for formaldehyde assay in fish food products. Food Chemistry. 127(2): 774-779 (2011)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soman A, Qiu Y, Chan Li Q. HPLC-UV method development and validation for the determination of low level formaldehyde in a drug substance. Journal of Chromatographic Science. 46(6): 461-465 (2008)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Storey JM, Andersen WC, Heise A, Turnipseed SB, Lohne J, Thomas T, Madson M. A rapid liquid chromatography determination of free formaldehyde in cod. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 32(5): 657-664 (2015)

  • Trézl L, Csiba A, Juhász S, Szentgyörgyi M, Lombai G, Hullán L, Juhász A. Endogenous formaldehyde level of foods and its biological significance. Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 205: 300–304 (1997)

  • Tyihák E, Blunden G, Yang MH, Crabb TA, Sárdi É. Formaldehyde, as its dimedone adduct, from Ascophyllum nodosum. Journal of Applied Phycology. 8: 211-215 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wahed P, Razzaq MA, Dharmapuri S, Corrales M. Determination of formaldehyde in food and feed by an in-house validated HPLC method. Food Chemistry. 202: 476-483 (2016)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weng X, Chon CH, Jiang H, Li D. Rapid detection of formaldehyde concentration in food on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip. Food Chemistry. 114(3): 1079-1082 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yeh TS, Lin TC, Chen CC, Wen, HM. Analysis of free and bound formaldehyde in squid and squid products by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Journal of Food and Drug Analysis. 21(2): 190-197 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant (20162MFDS116-2) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2020-2021 and BK21 FOUR (Fostering Outstanding Universities for Research, 4299990914600).

Funding

Funding was provided by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Grant No. 20162MFDS116-2).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 03760, Republic of Korea

    Namhee Lee, Meehye Kim & Young-Suk Kim

  2. Department of Food and Nutrition, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea

    Sang Mi Lee

Authors
  1. Namhee Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Meehye Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sang Mi Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Young-Suk Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Young-Suk Kim.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 26 kb)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lee, N., Kim, M., Lee, S.M. et al. Exposure assessment and monitoring of formaldehyde in agricultural products for the general Korean population. Food Sci Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-024-01547-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-024-01547-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation