57 and 2.54 pg WHO 2005 TEQ/kg body weight (b.w)., and identified seafood, dairy products and meat products as the main sources (EFSA, 2012b). The data presented in this paper can be used in risk calculations where contributions from other sources are known. As an example: 660 g salmon per week would

contribute to 50% of the TWI based on our data from 2011. However, predicting the contribution from other food sources on a global scale is beyond the scope of this paper. Therefore the maximum tolerable intake limits proposed here consider only salmon as the exposure source. The EFSA, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), SCF and WHO have derived TWIs for several of the contaminants which have been evaluated in this paper. TWIs have been established for AZD6244 purchase some of the pesticides, some metals, and the sum of dioxins and dl-PCBs. For all compounds except Hg and the sum of dioxins

and dl-PCBs, the measured amounts were negligible compared to the current TWIs, therefore calculations were limited to Hg and the sum of dioxins and dl-PCBs. There is a general agreement that 70–100% of the Hg in fish and seafood is present, in its most toxic chemical form, as MeHg+ (Amlund et al., selleck chemicals llc 2007, EFSA, 2012a and EFSA, 2012b). Accordingly, the TWI for MeHg+ was used in the risk calculations of the Norwegian farmed Atlantic salmon fillet. TWIs derived in Europe were chosen for the exposure calculation, SCF TWI for dioxins and dl-PCBs (SCF, 2001), and the EFSA TWI for MeHg+ (EFSA, 2012a and EFSA, 2012b). Based on Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level (LOAEL) observed in the most sensitive rodent studies, the SCF issued a PTWI of 14 pg WHO 1998 TEQ/kg b.w. for dioxins and dl-PCBs (SCF, 2001). This PTWI included an uncertainty

factor of 3.2 based on intraspecies toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic differences. Furthermore, the use of the LOAEL instead of the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL), added an uncertainty factor of 3, resulting in a total uncertainty factor of 9.6. The interspecies differences were already calculated based on examined data, and were therefore not added Lumacaftor concentration again as an uncertainty factor (SCF, 2001). By comparison the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States (US-EPA) issued a PTWI for dioxins and dl-PCBs of 4.9 pg/kg b.w. (EPA, 2012). In 2012 EFSA issued a PTWI for MeHg+ of 1.3 μg/kg b.w (EFSA, 2012a and EFSA, 2012b). This TWI was based on results from epidemiological studies performed in the Faroe Islands and the Seychelles, and the confounding effects of nutrients from fish were also taken into account. Based on the these studies, the US-EPA issued a Reference Dose (RfD) of 0.1 μg/kg b.w. per day (EFSA, 2012a and EFSA, 2012b). The guidelines used in Europe and the USA appear to diverge substantially. Previous food safety assessments of farmed Atlantic salmon have shown varying results.