Estimate the Risk of Acute Dietary Exposure to Ractopamine through the Consumption of Offal from Swine Feeding with Ractopamine in Feed

Abstract

Ractopamine is a β-adrenoceptor agonist produced acute cardiac response. It has been approved to be used as feed additive for swine to promote carcass leanness in some countries. The ractopamine residues in offal are greater than in other tissues. This study aimed to estimate acute risk of dietary exposure to ractopamine from the consumption of swine offal. The exposure was calculated from large amount of swine offal found in each recipe (large portion size) over a single meal (eater only) combined with high residue ractopamine concentration in swine offal found in the recipe. Food consumption data as one person-day was interviewed from 649 people who consumed swine offal 4 times per month. Using residue data from Beijing study in China (used 95/95 Tolerance limit in lung and median residue in other offals) for exposure estimation. The consumption of swine offal from the recipe provided the highest ractopamine exposure in each person of this population showed that the exposures exceeded the acute reference dose (ARfD). The mean, median, 95^th percentile and 97.5^th percentile exposures were 176, 145, 345 and 375% of ARfD, respectively. Thus, the use of ractopamine as feed additive in pork will provide the exposure raise the significant health concern for acute health risk in Thai people who like to consume food dishes containing swine offal.