Table 3.

Comparison of regulatory guidance in the EU and US for foods for human consumption concerning (i) maximum levels of total mycotoxins permitted; (ii) maximum levels (EU) or guidance values (US) for metals; and (iii) benchmark levels (EU only) for acrylamide.

Contaminant	EU		US
	Food Category	Maximum Level ** (ppb)	Food Category	Maximum Level ** (ppb)
Mycotoxins
Aflatoxin	All cereals (inc. maize and rice) for direct human consumption	4	All foods except milk	20
	Baby foods and processed cereal based foods for infants and young children	0.1 for aflatoxin B1
Deoxynivalenol	Cereal flour, maize flour, maize, grits and maize meal, dry pasta	750	Finished wheat products for human consumption	1000
	Bread, biscuits, pastries, cereal snacks and breakfast cereals	500
	Processed cereal based baby and infant food	200
Fumonisin	Maize and maize based foods intended for direct human consumption	1000	Degermed dry milled corn products (e.g. corn meal or corn flour with fat content < 2.25%, dry weight basis)	2000
	Maize based breakfast cereals and maize based snacks	800	Cleaned corn intended for popcorn	3000
	Processed maize based foods and baby foods for infants and young children	200	Whole or partially degermed dry milled corn products dry milled corn bran; cleaned corn intended for mass production	4000
Ochratoxin A	Cereal products and cereal grains intended for direct human consumption	3	None identified
	Baby foods and processed cereal based foods for infants & young children	0.5
Zearalenone	Cereals for direct human consumption (e.g., cereal flour, bran)	75	None identified
	Maize for direct human consumption, maize based snacks & breakfast cereals	100
	Bread, pastries, biscuits, cereal snacks, breakfast cereals	50
	Processed cereal & maize based foods and baby foods for infants & young children	20
Metals
Cadmium	Cereal grains excluding wheat & rice	100	None identified
	Wheat and rice grains, wheat bran & wheat germ for direct consumption	200
Arsenic	Parboiled rice and husked rice	250	Infant rice cereals ***	100
	Rice waffles, rice wafers, rice crackers and rice cakes	300
	Rice destined for production of foods for infants and young children	100
Lead	Cereals (pulses & legumes)	200	None identified
Process Contaminant
Acrylamide ****	Soft bread–wheat	50	None identified
	Non-wheat based soft bread	100
	Breakfast cereals, excluding porridge:
	(i) Bran and whole grain cereal, gun-puffed grain, wheat and rye based products	300
	(ii) Maize, oats, spelt, rye barley and rice-based products	150
	Processed cereal foods for infants and young children	40

References [39,42,61,73,75,76,77,78,79,80,81]; ** maximum levels listed for total mycotoxin subtype unless stated e.g., aflatoxin values reflect those from both B1 and M1 subtypes unless stated; *** relate to action levels only with other considerations required prior to any enforcement by US authorities; **** EU Regulation values for acrylamide relate to benchmark levels only, they are not maximum limits.