United States Total Diet Survey

There is little information on the nature of arsenic species in the human diet, apart from seafood, although limited market basket surveys and duplicate diet surveys have provided useful information on total arsenic concentration (48-50). Comprehensive analyses of food collected in Canadian cities in the years 1985-1988 showed that the food groups containing the highest mean arsenic concentrations were fish (1662 ng/g), meat and poultry (24.3 ng/g), bakery goods and cereals (24.5 ng/g), and fats and oils (19.0 ng/g) (48). The average daily dietary intake of total arsenic by Canadians was estimated to be 38 J,g and varied from 15 J,g for children 1-4 yr old to 59 p,g for males 20-39 yr old (49). Estimates of daily dietary intake of total arsenic from other countries include 62 J.g/day from the United States (50), 89 p-g/day from the United Kingdom (51), 55 pg/ day from New Zealand (52), and 160-280 pg/day from Japan (53). 

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