On June 15, 2020, Zhang Liuquan, Lu Baiyi of Zhejiang Universitypublished a research paper entitled “Benefit–risk assessment of dietary selenium and itsassociated metals intake in China (2017-2019): Is current selenium-richagro-food safe enough?” in Journal of Hazardous Materials (Q1, IF=9.038).This study investigated the benefit and risk of selenium and its associatedmetals in selenium-rich agro-food, which will provide data for further safetyassessment of selenium-rich agriculture.

Dietaryconsumption of selenium-rich agro-food is an effective way to avoid seleniumdeficiency diseases, however, over consumption of selenium-rich agro-food willresult in potential risk of selenosis and problems with associated metals. Inthis study, Prof. Lu’s team measured the concentrations of selenium and itsassociated metals in 2756 common and 4894 selenium-rich agro-food samples in 10regions of China. We found that selenium-rich rice, flour, edible fungi andalgae, meat, and tea contain higher levels of associated metals than other selenium-richagro-food samples. Increasing the consumption of selenium-rich agro-food couldmake the actual intakes (AIs) of selenium for all population to meet respectiverecommended daily intakes (RDIs). Benefit-risk assessment results indicatedthat increasing the consumption of selenium-rich agro-food make AIs of seleniumfor all populations meet RDIs, chromium intakes for people under 18 years oldexceed provisional tolerated daily intake (PTDIs), while arsenic and cadmiumintakes are close to PTDIs. The main dietary contributors of selenium,chromium, arsenic and cadmium were meat, edible fungi and algae, rice, andrice, respectively. The study supported the consumption of selenium-richagro-food for effective selenium supplement, but also emphasized potential riskfrom associated metals in selenium-rich agro-food, especially chromium.

This study was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Affairs' Major Financial Project of Agricultural Product Quality andSafety (GJFP2019040), The National Agricultural Industrial Technology System(CARS-11) and the Ministry of Science and Technology's National Key Researchand Development Project (2017YFC1601701). The Prof. Lu’s team formulated atotal of 49 suggestions on standard preparation and modification of selenium detectionand limitation, including “Determination method for Five Forms of Selenium inSelenium-rich Grain by HIGH Performance Liquid Chromatography-InductivelyCoupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry”, “Technical Specification for Selenium-RichProduct Certification”, and “Technical Specification for Selenium-Rich Feed forEnshi Black Pig”. This team has also published 15 popular science articles onWeChat, weibo and TV, and 20 articles in journals including Journal ofHazardous Materials, International Journal of Environmental Research and PublicHealth, Food Chemistry, and quality and safety of agricultural products, andwon  awards including "the Second Prizeof Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Education in2017" and "the Third Prize of Science and Technology Progress Award ofHubei Province".

Link to the article: Benefit–riskassessment of dietary selenium and its associated metals intake in China (2017-2019):Is current selenium-rich agro-food safe enough? - ScienceDirect