The dietary exposure assessment and occurrence of β-receptor agonist residues in livestock meat and liver marketed in Tianjin City

ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the risk of dietary exposure and study the residues of β-receptor agonists in livestock meat and liver marketed in Tianjin City.MethodsA total of 583 samples of pig， beef， mutton， and liver were randomly collected from supermarkets， online stores， and farmers’ markets in Tianjin City from 2016 to 2021. The β-receptor agonists clenbuterol， ractopamine， salbutamol， and terbutaline were tested by the relevant standard operating procedures of Manual China National Food Contamination and Harmful Factors Risk Monitoring， combined with residents’ food consumption data， using the index of food safety （IFS） to assess the health risk.ResultsThe overall detection rate of the 583 samples was 13.89% （81/583）. The main β-receptor agonist detected was clenbuterol， which accounted for 98.77% （80/81） of all the detected samples. Only 1 sample was detected with salbutamol， and the other 2 β-receptor agonists were not detected. The top 3 food categories in terms of detection rate were beef liver， 33.96% （36/106）； mutton， 15.79% （18/114）； and beef， 13.22% （16/121）， while the detection rate of pork and pig liver was 1.19% （1/84） and 2.00% （1/50）， respectively； the difference between the detection rates of the different categories was statistically significant （χ2=56.11， P < 0.05）. The detection rate of β-receptor agonists in samples collected from farmers’ markets was significantly higher than that collected from supermarkets and online shops （χ2= 10.91， P < 0.05）. The exposure risk assessment showed that the average exposure of pork， beef， and mutton ranged from 0.000 1 to 0.000 4 μg/kg·BW. The IFS ranged from 0.022 0 to 0.095 0， and the IFS values were less than 1.ConclusionA certain detection degree of β-receptor agonists was observed in livestock meat and liver marketed in Tianjin City， but the average exposure risk of β-receptor agonists was low from the dietary exposure of pig， beef， and mutton.