Abstract: Objective To investigate the cadmium content of main food sold in Guangzhou, and to preliminarily evaluate the health risk of the children and adolescents aged 3-17 years exposed to cadmium via the diet. Methods The cadmium content of 2 882 foods of 16 categories in Guangzhou was determined from 2016 to 2018. Combined with the data of food consumption survey of Guangzhou in 2011, the cadmium exposure risk of children and adolescents aged 3-17 years was preliminarily evaluated by the point estimate method. Results The average content of cadmium in major foods sold in Guangzhou was 0.000 4 -1.397 5 mg/kg. The total detection rate was 81.37%. The average cadmium content of bivalves was the highest （ with the average of 1.397 5 mg/kg）. The average monthly cadmium dietary exposure was 17.129 5 µg/kg·BW for preschool children aged 3-6 years, and 13.970 9 µg/kg·BW for school-age children and adolescents aged 7-17 years, both of the margin of safety （MOS） were greater than 1. According to high exposure model of food chemicals, the high-end exposure （95th percentile） of each group was 43.018 2 and 39.812 7 µg/kg·BW respectively, with the MOS less than 1. With the average dietary consumption of children and adolescents aged 3-6 years and 7-17 years, the main sources of cadmium exposure were rice and its products, leaf vegetables and bivalves, and the cumulative contribution rates of three kinds of food were 72.39% and 75.09%, respectively. With the high dietary consumption, the major sources of cadmium were bivalves, rice and its products and leaf vegetables, and the cumulative contribution rates of three kinds of food were 89.01% and 91.27%. Conclusion The cadmium intake of children and adolescents aged 3-17 years in Guangzhou through the daily diet is of low risk to health. However, children with high dietary consumption, especially those with high intake of bivalves have certain health risks. It is necessary to strengthen the monitoring of cadmium content in key food and advocate a balanced diet and diversity of food intake.

Key words: Cadmium, Risk assessment, Dietary, Children and adolescents