Furan content in Spanish baby foods and its relation with potential precursors

The presence of furan in commercial fruit- and vegetable-based jarred baby food was studied. Furan values ranged from 7.7 to 32.1 mu g/kg in fruit-based baby food and from 10.9 to 143.0 mu g/kg in vegetable-based baby food. The higher furan content in the latter case may be related to either greater ascorbic acid degradation or furfural content in these samples. This could be due to pH and higher temperatures used in sample preparation. Furan intake by Spanish infants ranges from 0.9 to 16.8 mu g/day, resulting in exposures of 0.1 to 2.1 mu g/kg bw/day. The maximum furan exposure recorded in this study is much lower than the no observable adverse effect level of 0.08 mg/kg bw/day determined in experimental animals studies, and is close to the reported acceptable daily intake of 2 mu g/kg bw/day.