Safety of aluminium from dietary intake

In view of the cumulative nature of aluminium in the organism after dietary exposure, the Panel considered it more appropriate to establish a tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for aluminium rather than a tolerable daily intake (TDI). Based on the combined evidence from the abovementioned studies, the Panel established a TWI of 1 mg aluminium/kg bw/week. The estimated daily dietary exposure to aluminium in the general population, assessed in several European countries, varied from 0.2 to 1.5 mg/kg bw/week at the mean and was up to 2.3 mg/kg bw/week in highly exposed consumers. The TWI of 1 mg/kg bw/week is therefore likely to be exceeded in a significant part of the European population. Cereals and cereal products, vegetables, beverages and certain infant formulae appear to be the main contributors to the dietary aluminium exposure. Due to the design of the human dietary studies and the analytical methods used, which only determine the total aluminium content in food, and not the individual aluminium compounds or species present, it is not possible to conclude on the specific sources contributing to the Opinion on safety of aluminium from dietary intake aluminium content of a particular food, such as the amount inherently present, the contributions from use of food additives, and the amounts released to the food during processing and storage from aluminium-containing foils, containers, or utensils. Thus a detailed breakdown by exposure source is not possible.